Download Free Accidental Optimists Guide To Life Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Accidental Optimists Guide To Life and write the review.

Exploring an inimitable philosophy of hope and humor through a variety of ups and downs, this quirky recollection illustrates the author’s search for the meaning of life. Depicting her experiences as the only doctor on call for an entire hospital in Sierra Leone in the midst of civil war, this portrait tells a story of optimism triumphing over what might elsewhere be the makings of disappointment and despair. From births and illnesses to family deaths and problem pets, this frank and unpredictable memoir demonstrates the remarkable insights that can be discovered from living through the seemingly unremarkable.
Frank and often outrageous, this is an account of a 40-something Englishwoman's epic 4,000 mile cycle ride from Seattle to Mexico, via the snow-covered Rockies, mostly alone and camping in the wild. She runs appalling risks and copes in a gutsy, hilarious way with exhaustion, climatic extremes, dangerous animals, eccentrics, lechers, and a permanently saddle-sore backside. We share her deep involvement with the West's pioneering past, and with the tragic traces that history has left lingering on the land. When she rides the faded trails of the vanished American Indian nations she displays a strong sensitivity to the atmosphere of the spectacular landscape, as if the moments of its vibrant past are hanging in the air, only waiting for her to conjure them up vividly—sometimes with humor, and frequently with passion. As she travels, the ghosts of Lewis and Clark, Chief Joseph and Geronimo, Custer and Crazy Horse—all the legendary figures of the Old West—ride with her.
When your Dad can crash his airplane into two water buffalo, life is unlikely to go according to plan. Even so, Emily Joy puts on her rose-tinted glasses, leaves behind her comfortable life as a doctor in Britain, and heads off for two years to a remote hospital in Sierra Leone. There she finds the oranges are green, the bananas are black, and her patients are very ill. There's no water, no electricity, no oxygen, no amputation saw—and Dr. Em is no surgeon. And there's no chocolate to treat her nasty case of unrequited love. Dr. Em's problems are tiny compared to those faced by the people of Sierra Leone on a daily basis. If they can remain so optimistic, what's Em's excuse? Our green doctor is a bit of a yellow-belly, often red-faced, trying to fight the blues. But green oranges give sweet orange juice. Never judge a fruit by its color.
Many would balk at the idea of a white woman traveling India alone—and in particular, a blind woman. Throughout her childhood Nicola Naylor had been fascinated by images of the subcontinent and was determined both to realize her dream of visiting and to push back the stifling constraints imposed by perceptions of her disability. While depending on her third eye—or sixth sense—she explores India from the inside. Her account is both sensuous and enormously visual as she gradually rebuilds her shattered self-confidence, regains her desire to live life, and rediscovers her almost forgotten love of writing.
The world isn't coming to an end, contrary to what you may have heard, says Jurriaan Kamp. Certainly there's upheaval and economic, political, and social instability, but the media's near-exclusive focus on conflict and disaster means that the progress and everyday acts of brilliance taking place across the globe go unnoticed, which contributes to the sense that apocalypse is at hand. And pessimism can be fatal: Kamp cites research showing that those who indulge in negative thinking are more likely to smoke, be overweight, and have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and an increased risk of Parkinson's disease than optimists. Meanwhile, evidence abounds that optimism—intelligent optimism, not a rose-colored-glasses brand of wishful thinking—is good not only for your mind but for your body, too. Kamp demonstrates that, on the whole, we're living longer, becoming smarter, working less, and growing richer. Democracy is on the rise, and violence is declining. He explains how we can cultivate an outlook of informed optimism that will make our lives and the world better—because, as he quotes Helen Keller, “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
The sequel to the bestselling book about leaving the UK for a new life in the Yukon, Dorian and his growing family get gold fever, start to stake land claims and prospect for gold. Follow them along the learning curve about where to look for gold and how to live in this harsh climate. It shows that with good humor and resilience life can only get better.
The world isn’t coming to an end, contrary to what you may have heard. But the media’s near-exclusive focus on conflict and disaster means that the progress and everyday acts of brilliance taking place across the globe go unnoticed. Jurriaan Kamp shows that optimism—intelligent optimism, not a rose-colored-glasses brand of wishful thinking—is good for not only your mind but your body too. He details a whole host of health problems that can actually be linked to pessimism. Moreover, there is good reason for optimism: Kamp proves that on the whole we’re living longer, becoming smarter, working less, and growing richer. Not only that, democracy is on the rise, and violence is declining. This book will help you tune out the media’s focus on sensationalism and negativity and turn on your natural optimism so you’ll drop into a “real world” that’s richer than you ever imagined.
"Men like to conquer, fight, or subdue the Arctic, while we had a different attitude. We felt that we had to go along with what we were faced with. . . . We tried to have the Arctic on our side instead of confronting it." In 1997 a group of 20 women set out to become the world's first all-female expedition to the North Pole, hoping to raise awareness and support for sufferers of cancer and other illnesses. Sue Riches, recently recovering from a mastectomy, and her daughter Victoria were among them, and this is their inspirational story of personal accomplishment.
For the more than one million women who get divorced each year, welcome to your support group. Wise, comforting, and uplifting, The Optimist’s Guide to Divorce captures the experience of sisterhood through the voices of its authors and their community of women in the Maplewood Divorce Club—women who understand what you’re going through, who know the practical issues as well as the emotional ones, and who can help you keep a sense of hope and a sense of humor. Brimming with stories and insights, valuable resources and smart strategies, in-the-trenches tips and sanity-saving takeaways, this book prepares you for each phase of divorce, from having “the talk,” to breaking the news to family and friends, to figuring out where to live, to co-parenting with an ex, to rebounding and rebooting your life. It’s divided into three sections that cover the process from start to finish—Deal, Heal, and Reveal—and make it easy to jump in wherever you are in your journey. And even better, to make the choices that will help you develop a better relationship with the one person you’ll be with for the rest of your life—yourself.
Three generations. Seven days. One big secret. The author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake unfolds a mother-daughter story told by three women whose time to reckon with a life-altering secret is running out. Gina Zoberski wants to make it through one day without her fastidious mother, Lorraine, cataloguing all her faults, and her sullen teenage daughter, May, snubbing her. Too bad there’s no chance of that. Her relentlessly sunny disposition annoys them both, no matter how hard she tries. Instead, Gina finds order and comfort in obsessive list-making and her work at Grilled G’s, the gourmet grilled cheese food truck built by her late husband. But when Lorraine suffers a sudden stroke, Gina stumbles upon a family secret Lorraine's kept hidden for forty years. In the face of her mother’s failing health and her daughter’s rebellion, this optimist might find that piecing together the truth is the push she needs to let go...