Haiku & Selected Poems Volume II

Haiku & Selected Poems Volume II

Richard Kay

Fiction / Humor and Comedy / Memoir

This book contains Haiku and selected poems, some are based on direct observation of the natural world, others are philosophical and some are of a lighter nature. The author has been published a number of times in the World Haiku Review and the United Haiku and Tanka Society Journal.The book covers mostly the anthropological and political side of Hegel thought, as contained and explained in the lessons around the “Phenomenology of Spirit” held by Alexandre Kojeve in the 1930s at the “Ecole de Hautes Etudes” in Paris. The course gives a lot of background for granted, namely the historical context as well as the philosophical one, being targeted at classes of philosophy students.In order to highlight Hegel core themes, I deliberately removed all the references of Hegel to other philosopher and key themes of his time (that is, Hegel position with respect to Kant on, say, the theory of intellect and knowledge, or his position with respect to Descartes on the concept of idea etc.) while I added two chapters to briefly show how Hegel ideas actually influenced much of the thinking after him and still provide a lot of the conceptual framework we use today.Chapter 1 provides a very essential biography of Hegel, to cast him in the key events that shaped his life and thinking.Chapter 2 gives a view on the task of philosophy as conceived by Hegel and the novel approach he introduced into looking at the development of ideas.Chapter 3 introduces the Master-Slave dialectic, according to Hegel the key mechanism that creates at once culture, society and history, as well as his vision of man and his action in the World.Chapter 4 expands on Hegel vision of History as it derives from his basic understanding of man and then how this evolves into his vision of Society and State.Chapter 5 moves eventually into the most abstract part of Hegel with a brief description of the main change he brought to the concept of idea and how ideas relate to time and history.Chapters 6 and 7 provide a short overview of the main concepts inherited from Hegel by some major thinkers and how they tried to differentiate themselves from such a legacy. I warn my readers that the disclaimer still applies, so I might be even more inaccurate here than I have been in previous chapters. I broadly classify these thinkers in two categories, the “fond adopters” and the “strong opponents” dedicating one chapter to each category.Chapter 8 tries eventually to draw some conclusion by figuring out what we can still be tremendously grateful to Hegel in our global 21st century, after that in the 20th century the darkest side of the philosopher thinking shaped in the bloodiest way the fate of entire countries through the rise and fall of totalitarian regimes across Europe and the world.
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The Explorer's Code

The Explorer's Code

Allison K. Hymas

Children's / Mystery / Humor and Comedy

Three kids have everything they need to solve the decades-old mystery of Idlewood Manor, in this middle grade novel full of real ciphers, puzzles, riddles, and codes.Idlewood Manor has been uninhabited for decades, until now . . . Math whiz Charlie won admission in a puzzle contest—and he's intrigued by the strange numbers he finds on Idlewood's walls. His restless sister Anna had to be dragged to the house—but then she discovers its hidden floor. Emily's parents brought her to the mansion on a secret mission—and she's determined to prove herself to them. All three kids soon unlock clues to Idlewood's mysterious past and the famous female explorer who's connected to it—and the secret treasure she left behind. But the adults around them are also hunting for the treasure. Charlie, Anna, and Emily will have to overcome their differences and work as a team to solve Idlewood's puzzles before it's too late.An Imprint...
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Sun on the Rocks - The Emotion Scale

Sun on the Rocks - The Emotion Scale

Somers Isle & Loveshade

Chick Lit / Fiction / Humor and Comedy

Clarity Nice attends a personal development course at Herbaline, a company reputed for its aggressive sales methods and a secretive hierarchical structure. Befriending Herbaline emotician Coley Manglove, Clarity gets hired to work on the company's secret project, an emotion scale used to elicit sales and label Herbaline employees conforming or rebellious, unrightfully deciding promotion prospects.Teleoperator Clarity Nice visits the headquarters of Herbaline in Orange County, a herbal, diet and weight prevention company, known for its aggressive marketing methods. Seeing on a corporate chart that the president of the company, Lyle Matchett, has never been seen and is not shown anywhere in the annual report of the company, she decides to explore the company's premises afterhours, and stumbles upon an area inside the company building labeled emotician office. Emotician Coley Manglove finds Clarity in her office and reveals to her the secretive project that she has been told to carry out by the head of human studies at Herbaline: A scale of emotion that can be used to describe the personality of employees and to elicit sales from a customer, even those reticent to buy Herbaline products.Clarity and her friend Lanai sign an agreement to work for Herbaline, with their duties undefined and their compensation contingent on dubious aspects of their performance. They board a plane for Cayman where the company has a sales training center, led by Herbaline motivational guru Coleman Cartmel. After looking at the poor sales performance of Clarity and Lanai, Manglove decides to send both of them to the Herbaline language facility in Palm Springs, where a company employee, Ambi Mivel, is being held against her will, because she shows signs of consistent company language refusal of the company's official sales language, 'Herbaspeak'.At the facility, Clarity gets into the 'antisale' area, the room where Mivel is being held against her will. Clarity realizes that Cartmel is manipulating the emotions of Herbaline employees, using an emotion scale that measures human emotions, assigning a subjective 'emotional tendency' number to each employee based on personality, which is used to promote or criticise the worker. The emotion scale links to a brain wave technology device known as the inducer, to prevent or cut off from employee thinking, any emotion that has to do with negative emotions, like impatience, hostility, animosity or open, overt disagreement with company sales policy. Signing off on a relational agreement with Cartmel, Clarity leaves the facility with the recluse, going to a relational board house in Nevada, 'Honey Ranch', belonging to Herbaline, in order to denounce the illegal policies of Herbaline, leave the place, and find their human blueprint, measured by the emotion scale, and shared with a shady group pulling the strings of Herbaline, known as the Privilege club.
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Bionic Punchline

Bionic Punchline

Damon L. Wakes

Science Fiction / Fantasy / Humor and Comedy

What do a squeamish torturer, an intelligent zombie, a newspaper-phobic superhero and Genghis Khan have in common? They're all in this book, and their stories were all written for Flash Fiction Month 2014. With one story for each and every day of July--and a humourous analysis of the event--there's something for everyone here."I have no problem with this, nor any useful comments!" ~Jasper FfordeIt was the ultimate cold case. The murders occurred on Mars twenty years ago, so how can Detective Inspector Richardson, a local policeman from Melbourne, Australia, track down the murderer – and why is he being asked to?Twenty years ago, the Prometheus landed in the Hellas Basin on Mars and all the crew died from unknown causes. When an historic site survey crew arrive, they find that the circumstances of the deaths weird and inexplicable. Yet secret coded instructions from the UN space agency HQ on Earth indicates that these circumstances were somehow known in advance. This is murder and Detective Inspector Richardson, a local detective from Melbourne, is called in to solve the case. There are only four people with means and opportunity, all of them are highly focused, very intelligent and none of them, apparently, has a convincing motive. Richardson must sort out their stories to find the guilty, all the time wondering why he was given this job at all.Joseph H.J. Liaigh started out studying the polar ice caps on Mars. Since then he has worked as a government scientist, an Air Force intelligence officer and an academic. He has studied everything from the methane streams on Titan to the flat topped volcanoes of Venus. Through all this, he has been an avid devotee of detective fiction. In The Prometheus Incident, he brings these two worlds together in a unique way to create an unusual and intriguing mystery.
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The Deadly Diadem: A Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mystery (Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

The Deadly Diadem: A Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mystery (Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

Tegan Maher

Paranormal / Mystery / Humor and Comedy

What kind of crazy witch curses a diadem to kill people? Apparently the kind that founds small beach towns and makes iced tea and finger sandwiches for cocktail parties. Why am I not surprised? This is, after all, the south.I admit I messed up when I dragged a sunken treasure chest to shore. I'll even take part of the blame for my obsessive-compulsive sister throwing them in an auction before I had a chance to check them for magical mojo. That doesn't mean I should have to deal with snobby socialites and the weak-kneed weenies that bow at their Prada-clad feet. Especially when said socialite is dead.Actually, it does. Because I come from a long line of powerful witches and warlocks tasked with keeping magical artifacts out of non-magical hands. Our family reputation is sterling, but just like all fine silver and old families, there's a little tarnish here and there. It's what makes us good at what we do.Now I'm going to have to trot out every trick I know when a local woman keels over dead at her own bridal party. Not only do I have to figure out what killed her, I have to recover it before it finds another victim, then cover it up to keep magic hidden. Together with my best friend, a powerful warlock who's personality tempers my own, and an ancient catalog that's been in my family for generations, we'll find the next artifact and take one more step toward cleaning up my mess.
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Love and Friendship

Love and Friendship

Jane Austen

Fiction / Romance / Humor and Comedy

This collection of the early works of Jane Austen uniquely displays the emerging talent of a brilliant and observant young woman. Completed before Austen was fifteen, the works are astonishing in their maturity. Blending the exuberance of youth with the sharp wit and devastating social criticism of her later novels, Love and Friendship is a collection not to be missed.
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Cruise Ship Caper

Cruise Ship Caper

Tegan Maher

Paranormal / Mystery / Humor and Comedy

Sunshine, massages, and drinks with little umbrellas in them. That's what cruises are all about, right? Maybe, unless you're a witch with a habit of finding trouble. When Noelle and crew go on a cruise to celebrate the death of the town's biggest bully, they find themselves in the middle of a robbery gone awry. Can they help a new friend get her grandma's pearls - and her life - back before the ship gets back to port? This novella is set in the Witches of Keyhole Lake Mysteries series and falls right after book 1, though it can be read in any order.
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The Witch's Wrath: Witches of Abaddon's Gate Book 1

The Witch's Wrath: Witches of Abaddon's Gate Book 1

Tegan Maher

Paranormal / Mystery / Humor and Comedy

These old witches think they can come here and steal the youth from unsuspecting women? Not in my town, sugar. Hold my potion.My name's Mila Maganti, and I used to be content running my potions shop and spending my days off at the beach. That is until some crazy angel decided to break her demon boyfriend out of the Valley of Lost Souls and let way more than just one bad-boy spirit out in the process.I run the potions shop because it's what I love. What most people don't know, though, is that my blood runs thick with powerful earth magic, and if I have to, I can do a bang-up job of holding my own in a fight if I have to. Or if I want to.When two girls turn up dead, drained of all their life forces, the Paranormal Criminal Investigation Bureau realizes what's happened. Some of the souls that escaped are evil witches bent on getting their bodies back, and to do that, they'll use ancient dark magic to siphon the essence from young women.As head of the regional crime unit, my cousin Michael came to me for help. He knows me, he trusts me, and most importantly, he knows I have what it takes to put these witches back in the pit they flew out of. And I'll do it with a smile. Nobody comes to my town and harms the people I care about. They've done gone and ticked off the wrong witch.Join me, my Arctic fox, Calamity, and my team of witches, shifters, and fae as we hunt these souls down and send them back where they belong. Who knows - you may even run into a Valkyrie or two along the way.This is Book One in my Elemental Witch series and features Mila Maganti, cousin to Destiny, who stars in my Enchanted Coast Magical Mysteries series.
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