Showing results by narrator "Neil Shah" in All Categories

Beyond soccer leagues, music camps, and drama lessons, today's youth are in an education arms race that begins in elementary school. In Hyper Education, Pawan Dhingra uncovers the growing world of high-achievement education and the after-school learning centers, spelling bees, and math competitions that it has spawned.

He was a cunning Berkeley Law grad who lost his job and hatched a con. Then he got rich and ran fast on an outlandish Adderall-fueled rush of stolen cash, multiple identities, and a euphoric fantasy of success. A Ponzi scheme was exposed, and a prominent Manhattan hedge fund imploded. Enterprising intern and financial wizard-in-training Gerti Muho saw it as an opportunity. He had insider knowledge and a knack for fraud, embezzlement, and identity theft. His steady supply of falsified prescriptions helped. Muho was on a luxury high. His luck seemed bottomless.

Islamophobia has spiraled into a global menace, and democratic and authoritarian regimes alike have deployed it as a strategy to persecute their Muslim populations. With this book, Khaled A. Beydoun details how the American War on Terror has facilitated and intensified the network of anti-Muslim campaigns unfolding across the world. The New Crusades is the first book of its kind, offering a critical and intimate examination of global Islamophobia and its manifestations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and regions beyond and in between.

As empires rose and fell and mighty kings jostled for power, its glittering radiance never dimmed. It is the "Mountain of Light" - the Kohinoor diamond - and its facets reflect a sweeping story of love, adventure, conquest, and betrayal. Its origins are the stuff of myth, but for centuries this spectacular gem changes hands from one ruler to another in India, Persia, and Afghanistan.

A master of the short story, Saadat Hasan Manto opens a window onto Bombay's demimonde - its prostitutes, rickshaw drivers, artists, and strays as well, probing the pain and bewilderment of the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs ripped apart by the India-Pakistan Partition. From a stray dog caught in the crossfire at the fresh border of India and Pakistan, to friendly neighbors turned enemy soldiers pausing for tea together in a momentary ceasefire - Manto shines incandescent light into hidden corners with an unflinching gaze, and a fierce humanism.

Peace between Arabs and Jews seems forever out of reach, both sides caught in a never-ending cycle of violence and revenge. But while treaties and other top-down solutions have had little lasting effect, peacemakers on the ground are creating real change - within themselves and with their enemies. In Bridges Across an Impossible Divide, American professor Marc Gopin offers an unprecedented exploration of the spiritual lives of Arab and Jewish peacemakers who have evolved deep friendships despite decades of war and suffering on all sides.

The Tirukkural (honoured Kural) is one of the world's greatest literary and philosophical masterpieces. Composed in Tamil by Tiruvalluvar sometime between 2 BCE and 5 CE, its succinct couplets seek to explain and guide the listener through life's various situations: political, spiritual, domestic and social.

The Call of the Wild is the story of a dog in the frozen Yukon told from his point of view. But this brilliantly told tale of a canine hero is in fact a graphic picture of the great gold rush to the Klondike in 1897. Brutal and fierce on one hand, it is also a story of tenderness and loyalty between man and beast and remains one of the best- selling books in American literary history.

After Kevin Corley’s military career came to an ill-fated end, he answered another call of duty, unaware that he was walking into a ruse orchestrated by one of the government’s most enterprising agents. John Leonard was posing online as an underworld figure to entrap those who were predisposed to crime. When he lured Lieutenant Corley into his scheme, he didn’t know how wrong it would go. And Corley had no idea he had so much left to lose.

>Do you feel overwhelmed by work - or life in general? Having trouble coping with too many demands on your time and energy? Well you're not alone! Britain is currently suffering from a stress epidemic. A staggering one in four employees are said to suffer from stress and it is listed as the noumber-one reason for workplace absence in the UK. Luckily for us, Neil Shah at the Stress Management Society is here to help. With a fantastic 10-step plan, he offers simple and practical solutions for reducing your stress levels so you can manage your life and breathe a sigh of relief.

After decades of studying and working with tens of thousands of patients, Amit Sood has found a potent and practical approach to well-being that is well-suited to 21st-century living. Based on Dr. Sood’s popular, clinically proven stress management program, The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness offers a straightforward plan anyone can implement across 10 weeks. Combining groundbreaking insights from neuroscience and psychology, and wisdom from philosophy and spirituality, Dr. Sood reveals how to reduce everyday anxiety and find greater fulfillment in life.

Delhi, the near future: a former journalist goes in search of answers after she finds herself stripped of identity and citizenship and thrust into a vast conspiracy involving secret detention centers, government sanctioned murders, online rage, nationalist violence, and a figure of shifting identifies known as the “New Delhi Monkey Man.” Bhopal, 1984: an assassin hunts a whistleblower through a central Indian city that will shortly be the site of the worst industrial disaster in history. Calcutta, 1947: a veterinary student’s life and work connect him to an ancient Vedic aircraft.

When Cora Holman’s mother dies, she assumes the inevitable: that her mother overdosed on the painkillers she’d been taking for years. So she’s shocked to learn that her mother and a neighbor both died of a brain aneurysm the same night. When Cora and other neighborhood teens become ill with a mysterious flu, and government-type strangers arrive in her small town, they all fear the unthinkable - a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, a world away in Pakistan, a 16-year-old computer genius named Shahzad is working as a virtual spy....

Classic fables take on new meaning as five of today’s most original bestselling authors serve up some deliciously modern twists. New reflections on evil queens, charmless princes, and star-crossed lovers branch out in provocative and enchanting directions. Follow the path and see where it leads...

On a ravaged street overlooking a cemetery in Beirut's Christian enclave, we meet an eccentric young man named Pavlov, the son of a local undertaker. When his father meets a sudden and untimely death, Pavlov is approached by a colorful member of the mysterious Hellfire Society - an anti-religious sect that, among many rebellious and often salacious activities, arranges secret burial for outcasts who have been denied last rites because of their religion or sexuality.

As we use the Web for social networking, shopping, and news, we leave a personal trail. These days, linger over a Web page selling lamps, and they will turn up at the advertising margins as you move around the Internet, reminding you, tempting you to make that purchase. Search engines such as Google can now look deep into the data on the Web to pull out instances of the words you are looking for. And there are pages that collect and assess information to give you a snapshot of changing political opinion.

Delving into what it takes to win $8.9 million in one tournament, this guide provides tips and tricks on becoming a World Series of Poker main event champion. Penned by the 2010 winner himself, the handbook reveals useful insight without being too technical, making it ideal for casual players and aficionados alike. Clever plays at crucial spots are revealed, and the 2010 champion’s strategic thinking is retraced in detail, outlining the vital moments when he had to either go all in or fold.

In this anthology of creative nonfiction, 28 writers set out to discover what they know, and don't know, about the person they call Mother. Celebrated writers Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith have curated a diverse and insightful collection that challenges stereotypes about mothers and expands our notions of motherhood in the South. The mothers in these essays were shaped, for good and bad, by the economic and political crosswinds of their time.

The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon left us stunned, angry, and uncomprehending. As it became clear that these horrifying acts had been committed in the name of religion, the media, the government, and ordinary citizens alike sought answers to questions about Islam and its adherents.

Imagine having recurring nightmares of a woman who has one normal leg and one baby leg, and then waking up to wonder if today will be the day when they—whoever “they” are—find you and kill you. Unless you’re missing the point. Maybe “they” already have “you” and the world is a great deal more grotesque than you could ever imagine. Film noir collides with virtual worlds in this dark and strange novella that only Brian Evenson could have written.