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[Vikatakavi02]

Kalidasa - Ritusamharam: 

A Gathering of Seasons

A.N.D. Haksar (Translator) 

Perhaps the most lively and exuberant of Kalidasa's extant works, Ritusamharam is a glorious ode to nature's bounty and the enduring emotional response it evokes in mankind as a whole. 

Recounted as a celebration of the passing seasons, it is a feast for the senses, capturing the myriad facets of love and longing in a kaleidoscope of sumptuous imagery: the mischievous moonlight that, like a pining lover, steals glances at sleeping maidens; the monsoon-bloated rivers that rush to the sea with a lustful urgency; the flame of lovemaking that is kindled anew at the onset of winter; the heady scent of mango blossoms that makes even the most unyielding of hearts quiver. Even animals, big and small, are swept into the playful pattern of the great poet's lyrical homage. 

A.N.D. Haksar's supple and spirited translation is accompanied by an absorbing introduction and notes that shed further light on this extraordinary work. 
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[Vikatakavi02]

SHOBHA RAO

Shobha Rao is an American novelist, having immigrated from India. She won the 2014 Katherine Anne Porter Prize, is a recipient of the Elizabeth George Foundation fellowship, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2015.

Rao's debut novel, Girls Burn Brighter, has been praised for its "sustained and elegant prose", though USA Today said that the "empowering message gets lost in the overheated language and imagery"; the review concluded that once "Rao learns to dial down the melodrama, she’ll be a formidable writer". Another reviewer calls Rao "a natural storyteller". Rao's other work, An Unrestored Woman, is a short story collection that was called "a breathless and fascinating read".

A theme throughout Rao's works is oppression, especially of women.

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Girls Burn Brighter

A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship between two girls who are driven apart but never stop trying to find one another again.

When Poornima first meets Savitha, she feels something she thought she lost for good when her mother died: hope. Poornima's father hires Savitha to work one of their sari looms, and the two girls are quickly drawn to one another. Savitha is even more impoverished than Poornima, but she is full of passion and energy. She shows Poornima how to find beauty in a bolt of indigo cloth, a bowl of yogurt rice and bananas, the warmth of friendship. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to lock down for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend again. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face relentless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them. 

In breathtaking prose, Shobha Rao tackles the most urgent issues facing women today: domestic abuse, human trafficking, immigration, and feminism. At once a propulsive page-turner and a heart-wrenching meditation on friendship, Rao's debut novel is a literary tour de force.

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An Unrestored Woman

The twelve paired stories in Shobha Rao's An Unrestored Woman trace their origins to the formation of India and Pakistan in 1947, but they transcend that historical moment.

A young woman in a crushingly loveless marriage seizes freedom in the only way left to her; a mother is forced to confront a chilling, unforgiveable crime she committed out of love; an ambitious servant seduces both master and mistress; a young prostitute quietly, inexorably plots revenge on the madam who holds her hostage; a husband and wife must forgive each other for the death of their child. 

Caught in extreme states of tension, in a world of shifting borders, of instability, Rao's characters must rely on their own wits. When Partition established Pakistan and India as sovereign states, the new boundary resulted in a colossal transfer of people, the largest peacetime migration in human history. 

This mass displacement echoes throughout Rao's story couplets, which range across the twentieth century, moving beyond the subcontinent to Europe and America. Told with dark humor and ravaging beauty, An Unrestored Woman unleashes a fearless new voice on the literary scene.

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[Vikatakavi02]

Koh-I-Noor: 
The History of the 
World's Most 
Infamous Diamond

by William Dalrymple,  Anita Anand

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. 

On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal Act of Submission to Queen Victoria not only swathes of the richest land in India, but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light. 

The history of the Koh-i-Noor that was then commissioned by the British may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi Bazaars, but it was to be become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology which has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting: in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. 

Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating.

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[Vikatakavi02]

The Complete Works of 
Swami Vivekananda, 
9 Volumes.

All the nine published volumes of Swami Vivekananda's works are available here. All proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to Advaita Ashrama, founded by Swami Vivekananda.

In these volumes we have not only a principles to the world at large, but also, to its own children, the Charter of the ***** faith. For the first time in history, Hinduism itself forms here the subject of generalization of a ***** mind of the highest order. What Hinduism had needed was the organizing and consolidating of its own idea, a rock where she could lie at anchor, and an authoritative utterance in which she might recognise herself. What the world had needed was a faith that had no fear of truth. Both are found in the words and writings of Swami Vivekananda. It is the latest principles or beliefs of a modern Prophet of religion and spirituality to the mankind.

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Contents of all 9 Volumes:

Volume 1 - DOWNLOAD

• Addresses at The Parliament of Religions
  
• Karma-Yoga
  
• Raja-Yoga
  
• Lectures and Discourses
  

Volume 2 - DOWNLOAD

• Work and its Secret
  
• The Powers of the Mind
  
• Hints on Practical Spirituality
  
• Bhakti or Devotion
  
• Jnana-Yoga
  
• Practical Vedanta and other lectures
  
• Reports in American Newspapers
  

Volume 3 - DOWNLOAD

• Lectures and Discourses
  
• Bhakti-Yoga
  
• Para-Bhakti or Supreme Devotion
  
• Lectures from Colombo to Almora
  
• Reports in American Newspapers
  
• Buddhistic India
  

Volume 4 - DOWNLOAD

• Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga
  
• Lectures and Discourses
  
• Writings: Prose
  
• Writings: Poems
  
• Translations: Prose
  
• Translations: Poems
  

Volume 5 - DOWNLOAD

• Epistles - First Series
  
• Interviews
  
• Notes from Lectures and Discourses
  
• Questions and Answers
  
• Conversations and Dialogues (Recorded by Disciples - Translated)
  
• Sayings and Utterances
  
• Writings: Prose and Poems - Original and Translated
  

Volume 6 - DOWNLOAD

• Lectures and Discourses
  
• Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
  
• Writings: Prose and Poems - Original and Translated
  
• Epistles - Second Series
  
• Conversations and Dialogues (From the Diary of a Disciple)
  

Volume 7 - DOWNLOAD

• Inspired Talks
  
• Conversations and Dialogues
  
• Translation of Writings
  
• Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
  
• Epistles - Third Series
  

Volume 8 - DOWNLOAD

• Lectures and Discourses
  
• Writings: Prose
  
• Writings: Poems
  
• Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
  
• Sayings and Utterances
  
• Epistles - Fourth Series
  

Volume 9 - DOWNLOAD

• Letters (Fifth Series)
  
• Lectures and Discourses
  
• Notes of Lectures and Classes
  
• Writings: Prose and Poems (Original and Translated)
  
• Conversations and Interviews
  
• Excerpts from Sister Nivedita's Book
  
• Sayings and Utterances
  
• Newspaper Reports
  

[magicman]

woow cool update

[Vikatakavi02]

బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం (నవల)

బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం మొక్కపాటి నరసింహరావు కలం నుండి వెలువడిన హాస్యంతో కూడిన నవల. ఈ నవల మూడు భాగాలుగా వెలువడింది. ఈ నవలలో ముఖ్య కథానాయకుడైన పార్వతీశం ఒక పల్లెటూరు నుండి బయలుదేరి ఇంగ్లండ్ వెళ్ళి న్యాయశాస్త్రం అభ్యసించి భారత దేశానికి తిరిగి వచ్చి న్యాయశాస్త్రాన్ని ప్రాక్టీసు చేసి మంచి పేరు సంపాందించి కథ చివరిభాగంలో స్వాతంత్ర్యోద్యమంలో పాల్గొంటాడు.

బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం మొదటి భాగం
పార్వతీశం మొగల్తూరు నుండి బయలు దేరి నిడదవోలు మీదుగా చెన్నై వెళ్తాడు. అక్కడ నుండి ఓడ పట్టుకొని ఇంగ్లాడు చేరుతాడు. ఈ భాగం చాలా హాస్యంగా నడుస్తుంది. ముఖ్యంగా నిడదవోలు నుండి మద్రాసు వెళ్ళే రైలు ప్రయాణం చాలా హాస్యరసంగా చిత్ర్రించడం జరిగింది. మద్రాసు నుండి ఇంగ్లాండు వెళ్ళడానికి కావలసిన సరంజామా కొనుక్కొనే సన్నివేశాలు చాలా హాస్యవత్తరంగా ఉంటాయి. ఈ నవలను తెలుగు అకాడమీ పుస్తకాల్లో పదవ తరగతి తెలుగు ఉపవాచకముగా అందించారు.

బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం రెండవ భాగం
ఓడలో ఇంగ్లండ్ చేరు కొన్న పార్వతీశం ఓడలో చిక్కిన స్నేహితుడి వల్ల స్కాట్‌లాండ్లో ఎడిన్‌బరా నగరంలో ఒక ఇంట్లో పేయింగ్ గెస్టుగా చేరుతాడు. ఒక లా కళాశాలలో చేరుతాడు. ఆంగ్లం కూడా రాని పార్వతీశం ఏకసంధాగ్రహి క్రింద అన్ని విషయాలు ఒక్కసారి చెప్పడంతో గ్రహించి అందరి మన్ననలు పొందుతాడు. ఒక స్నేహితురాలిని ఆసక్తికరమైన సన్నివేశం ద్వారా పొందుతాడు. హాస్యం పాళ్ళు ఈ భాగంలో తగ్గినా ఈ భాగం రసవత్తరంగానే ఉంటుంది. ఈ భాగం చివరి అంకంలో బారిష్టర్ పాసై ఇంటి ప్రయాణం పట్టుతాడు. తన స్నేహితురాలు వదిలి వెళ్ళే సన్నివేశాన్ని మొక్కపాటి నరసింహరావు గారు చాలా చక్కగా చిత్రించారు.

బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం మూడవ భాగం
మూడవ భాగం ముఖ్యంగా ఇంటివచ్చాక తనని ఇంటి వారు ఏవిధంగా స్వీకరించారు అనే విషయాలు, అప్పటి సాంప్రదాయల ప్రకారం బయటి దేశం నుండి వచ్చిన వారు ఎదుర్కొనే సంఘటనలు చిత్రించారు. ఇంగ్లాండు నుండి వచ్చాక గ్రామంలో ఉన్నవారు అడిగే వివిధమైన విచిత్ర ప్రశ్నలు చాలా అసక్తికరంగా ఉంటాయి. తరువాత పెళ్ళి, న్యాయశాస్త్ర ప్రాక్టీసు, స్వాతంత్ర్యోద్యమంలో పాల్గొనడం, ప్రకాశం పంతులు గారిని కలవడం, తాను సంపాదించిన సంపదను స్వాతంత్ర్యోద్యమానికి ధార పోయడం, పలు మార్లు జైలుకి వెళ్ళడం అనే విషయాలు ఉంటాయి. హాస్యం పాళ్ళు ఈ భాగంలో మరింత తగ్గుతుంది.

'బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం' అమ్మడానికి రచయిత పడిన కష్టాలు
ఒక ప్రముఖుని (పోలాప్రగడ సత్యనారాయణ మూర్థి) మాటలలో........ 
"ఒక రోజు కళాశాల నుంచి ఇంటి కొచ్చే సరికి మా ఇంటి అరుగు మీద వాలు కుర్చీలో కూర్చొని మా పిల్లలకి కథలు చెప్తూ నవ్విస్తున్నారు.. బారిస్టర్ పార్వతీశం నవలా రచయిత మొక్క పాటి నరసింహ రావు గారు. కుశల ప్రశ్నలు అయింతర్వాత వచ్చిన పని చెప్పారు.

"వాడెవడో చెప్పితే నమ్మి ఐదు వేల కాపీలేశాను బారిస్టర్ పార్వతీశం. పది హేనేళ్లయింది. ఇంకా పదిహేను వందల పుస్తకాలు మిగిలి వున్నాయి. ఈ వూళ్లొ నాలుగైదు హైస్కూళ్లున్నాయంట గదా.... ఒక్కొక్క ఉన్నత పాఠశాల ఇరవై అయిదు చొప్పున కొన వచ్చట. అంతా కొంటే వంద పుస్తకాలు ఖర్చు అవుతాయి. కాపి రూపాయా పావలా... రేప్పొద్దున వెళ్లి ఒక్కొక్క హెడ్మాస్టర్ ను కలుసు కోవాలి. పని ఎంత వరకు అవుతుందో? "...... నాకు చాల బాధ కలిగింది. బారిస్టర్ పర్వతీశం అంటే ఒక హాస్య మహా కావ్యం. దాన్ని అమ్ముకోడానికి రచయిత ప్రతి ఉన్నత పాఠశాలకూ ఎక్కే గుమ్మం దిగే గుమ్మంగా యాచించడమా?

"ఎన్ని పుస్తకాలు తెచ్చారు" అనడిగాను.

"వంద. అంటే నూట పాతిక రూపాయిలవి"

"మీరెక్కడికి వెళ్లకండి. అవి అమ్ముడయే మార్గం నేను చూస్తాను" అన్నాను. ఆ మర్నాడు ఒక తెల్ల కాగితం మీది ఒక ఆహ్వాన పత్రికను రాశాను ఇలా. "మొక్క పాటి వారు వచ్చారు. వారి బారిస్టర్ పార్వతీశం నవల వారి సంతకం తో ఇస్తారు. పుస్తకం వెల ఎంత వున్నా పుస్తకం తీసుకున్నవారు మాత్రం వారికి పది రూపాయలివ్వాలి. జేబులో పదేసి రూపాయిలేసుకొని రేపు సాయింత్రం ఆరు గంటలకి స్థానిక లైబ్రరి దడాబామీద జరిగే భావపురి రచయితల సమావేశానికి రావలసింది" అంటూ ఒక విద్యార్థికి ఆ కాగితం ఇచ్చి వూళ్లో వున్న లెక్చరర్లు, ప్లీడర్లు, ఉద్యోగులు, విద్యావంతులు ఇతర పుర ప్రముఖులలు చూపించి, వారు చూసి నట్లు సంతకాలు చేయించుకొని రమ్మని పంపించాను.

కాగితం మీద సంతకాలయితే అరవై మంది చేశారు. కాని సభకు వచ్చి మొక్క పాటి వారి సంతకంతో వున్న నవలని పదిరూపాయిలిచ్చి తీసుకోడానికి, ఆయన ఉపన్యాసం వినడానికి నూట పది మంది వచ్చారు. పుస్తకాలు వందే వుండడం వల్ల పది మందికి ఇవ్వలేక పోయాము. కాని రచయితకి గంటలో వెయ్యి రూపాలొచ్చాయి. అదీ ఎలా? భక్తి ప్రవుత్తులతో సంర్పించినవి. మొక్క పాటి వారు ఎంత సంతోషించారో.... నా చేతులు పట్టుకొని " నూట పాతిక వస్తే చాలనుకున్నాను. కాని వెయ్యి రూపాయిలొచ్చాయి.... నీ వల్లనే" అన్నారు. క్షమించండి ఇది నావల్ల గాదు, బాపట్లలో వున్న రసజ్ఞుల వల్ల ... ఒక మంచి గ్రంథాన్ని ... రచయిత చేతుల మీదుగా తీసుకోవాలనే అకాంక్ష వుండడం వల్లా....... ఇది వీరందరి రసజ్ఞత.. సంస్కారమూను.." అన్నాను. అదే ఈ రోజుల్లో అయితే సాద్యమేనా? ........

బారిష్టరు పార్వతీశం సినిమా

1940లో విడుదలయ్యిన బారిస్టర్ పార్వతీశం సినిమా తెలుగులో మొట్టమొదటి హస్యకథా చిత్రం. మొక్కపాటి నరిశింహ రావు రచించిన బారిస్టర్ పార్వతీశం నవల ఆధారంగా ఈ సినిమాను నిర్మించారు. ఈ సినిమాకు ఎచ్.ఎమ్.రెడ్డి దర్శకత్వం వహించాడు. లంక సత్యం ప్రధాన పాత్రలో నటించగా జి.వరలక్ష్మి పార్వతీశం భార్యగా నటించింది. ఈ సినిమా అనుకున్నంత ఆర్థిక విజయం సాధించలేకపోయినా మొదటి తెలుగు హస్యకథ సినిమాగా గుర్తింపు తెచ్చుకుంది.

DOWNLOAD PDF File (141 MB)

BARRISTER PARVATEESAM

[Vikatakavi02]

1971 

A Global History of the Creation of 

Bangladesh

by Srinath Raghavan

The war of 1971 was the most significant geopolitical event in the Indian subcontinent since its partition in 1947. At one swoop, it led to the creation of Bangladesh, and it tilted the balance of power between India and Pakistan steeply in favor of India. The Line of Control in Kashmir, the nuclearization of India and Pakistan, the conflicts in Siachen Glacier and Kargil, the insurgency in Kashmir, the political travails of Bangladesh--all can be traced back to the intense nine months in 1971.

Against the grain of received wisdom, Srinath Raghavan contends that far from being a predestined event, the creation of Bangladesh was the product of conjuncture and contingency, choice and chance. The breakup of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh can be understood only in a wider international context of the period: decolonization, the Cold War, and incipient globalization. In a narrative populated by the likes of Nixon, Kissinger, Zhou Enlai, Indira Gandhi, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tariq Ali, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, and Bob Dylan, Raghavan vividly portrays the stellar international cast that shaped the origins and outcome of the Bangladesh crisis.

This strikingly original history uses the example of 1971 to open a window to the nature of international humanitarian crises, their management, and their unintended outcomes.

DOWNLOAD HERE

EPUB FILE

PDF FILE

[LundonLunda]

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson

From best-selling author Walter Isaacson comes the landmark biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

In Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, Isaacson provides an extraordinary account of Jobs' professional and personal life. Drawn from three years of exclusive and unprecedented interviews Isaacson has conducted with Jobs as well as extensive interviews with Jobs' family members and key colleagues from Apple and its competitors, Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography is the definitive portrait of the greatest innovator of his generation.

Download : STEVE JOBS

@Vikatakavi02                                                                                       
 
                       My friend the link is not working. May be due to copy right problem.

[LundonLunda]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/po9bm63xw...m.pdf/file

Thanks for Sharing. 

[Vikatakavi02]

My Dear LoL...
I've changed the links for the book you've mentioned. I hope it works good.
Thank you

Regards
Vikatakavi02

[Vikatakavi02]

Guru

by RuPaul

A timeless collection of philosophies from renaissance performer and the world’s most famous shape-shifter RuPaul, whose sage outlook has created an unprecedented career for more than thirty-five years. 

GuRu is packed with more than 80 beautiful photographs that illustrate the concept of building the life you want from the outside in and the inside out.

"You’re born naked and the rest is drag."

As someone who has deconstructed life’s hilarious facade, RuPaul has broken "the fourth wall" to expand on the concept of mind, body, and spirit. This unique perspective has allowed RuPaul to break the shackles of self-imposed limitations, but reader beware, this is a daily practice that requires diligence and touchstones to keep you walking in the sunshine of the spirit. Once you’re willing to look beyond the identity that was given to you, a hidden world of possibilities will open its doors.

Throughout the history of humans on this planet, there’ve always been shaman, seers, and mediums who are able to interpret both high and low frequencies and remind humans to look beyond the surface for the truth of who we really are. And who we really are is an extension of the power that created the universe (aka: God in drag). FYI: most people are not willing to hear or accept that.

That is RuPaul’s secret for success, not only in show business, but in all aspects of life, especially in navigating the emotional landmines that inhibit most sweet, sensitive souls.

If you think this book is just about "doing drag," you are sorely mistaken because for RuPaul, drag is merely a device to deactivate the identity-based ego and allow space for the unlimited.

PDF: Download

EPUB: Download

[LundonLunda]

My Dear LoL...
I've changed the links for the book you've mentioned. I hope it works good.
Thank you

Regards
Vikatakavi02

The links are working perfectly well. Thank you for the quick response brother. 

And J. K. R's - Harry Potter 4 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (8 July 2000) 
link is not working. Please look into it. Thank you.  - l o l

[Vikatakavi02]

Dear LoL...
Changed that one as well.
Thanks & Welcome

[LundonLunda]

Dear LoL...
Changed that one as well.
Thanks & Welcome

The link is working perfectly well. What can I say but Thank You once again yaar!

[Vikatakavi02]

Gandhi and Churchill: 

The Epic Rivalry 

that Destroyed an Empire 

and Forged Our Age

by Arthur Herman

In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire. They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain's most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars--and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions--the jewel in the crown of Britain's overseas empire for 200 years. Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British--including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two. Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India's liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civilrights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world. Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.

DOWNLOAD LINKS >>> PDF||EPUB

[Vikatakavi02]

The $100 Startup:

 Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, 

Do What You Love, 

and Create a New Future

 

by Chris Guillebeau

In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau shows you how to lead of life of adventure, meaning and purpose – and earn a good living.

 

Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck.  Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back.  

 

There are many others like Chris – those who’ve found ways to opt out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful.  Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do.  You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you're sure it's successful. 

 

In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies.  In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.

 

Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment.  It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such -- and what other people will pay for.  You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees.  All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid.

 

Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick.  Among Chris’s key principles: if you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish – sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins. 

 

In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold.  Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives.  And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs.  This remarkable book will start you on your way.

DOWNLOAD LINKS - EPUB||PDF

[Vikatakavi02]

The New Critical Thinking: 

An Empirically Informed Introduction

by Jack Lyons,  Barry Ward

Why is it so hard to learn critical thinking skills?

Traditional textbooks focus almost exclusively on logic and fallacious reasoning, ignoring two crucial problems. As psychologists have demonstrated recently, many of our mistakes are not caused by formal reasoning gone awry, but by our bypassing it completely. We instead favor more comfortable, but often unreliable, intuitive methods. Second, the evaluation of premises is of fundamental importance, especially in this era of fake news and politicized science.

This highly innovative text is psychologically informed, both in its diagnosis of inferential errors, and in teaching students how to watch out for and work around their natural intellectual blind spots. It also incorporates insights from epistemology and philosophy of science that are indispensable for learning how to evaluate premises. The result is a hands-on primer for real world critical thinking. The authors bring over four combined decades of classroom experience and a fresh approach to the traditional challenges of a critical thinking course: effectively explaining the nature of validity, assessing deductive arguments, reconstructing, identifying and diagramming arguments, and causal and probabilistic inference. Additionally, they discuss in detail, important, frequently neglected topics, including testimony, the nature and credibility of science, rhetoric, and dialectical argumentation.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Uses contemporary psychological explanations of, and remedies for, pervasive errors in belief formation. There is no other critical thinking text that generally applies this psychological approach.
  
• Assesses premises, notably premises based on the testimony of others, and evaluation of news and other information sources. No other critical thinking textbook gives detailed treatment of this crucial topic. Typically, they only provide a few remarks about when to accept expert opinion / argument from authority.
  
• Carefully explains the concept of validity, paying particular attention in distinguishing logical possibility from other species of possibility, and demonstrates how we may mistakenly judge invalid arguments as valid because of belief bias.
  
• Instead of assessing an argument's validity using formal/mathematical methods (i.e., truth tables for propositional logic and Venn diagrams for categorical logic), provides one technique that is generally applicable: explicitly showing that it is impossible to make the conclusion false and the premises true together. For instructors who like the more formal approach, the text also includes standard treatments using truth tables and Venn diagrams.
  
• Uses frequency trees and the frequency approach to probability more generally, a simple method for understanding and evaluating quite complex probabilistic information
  
• Uses arguments maps, which have been shown to significantly improve students' reasoning and argument evaluation
  

Download Links - EPUB|PDF

[Vikatakavi02]

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime." 

Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir's choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

Download Links — EPUB||PDF

[Vikatakavi02]

A People's 

History of Heaven

A Novel by Mathangi Subramanian

A politically driven graffiti artist. A transgender Christian convert. A blind girl who loves to dance. A queer daughter of a veili union leader. These are some of the young women who live in a Bangalore slum known as Heaven, young women whom readers will come to love in the moving, atmospheric, and deeply inspiring debut, A People's History of Heaven.

Welcome to Heaven, a thirty-year-old slum hidden between brand-new high-rise apartment buildings and technology incubators in contemporary Bangalore, one of India's fastest-growing cities. In Heaven, you will come to know a community made up almost entirely of women, mothers and daughters who have been abandoned by their men when no male heir was produced. Living hand-to-mouth and constantly struggling against the city government who wants to bulldoze their homes and build yet more glass high-rises, these women, young and old, gladly support one another, sharing whatever they can.

A People's History of Heaven centers on five best friends, girls who go to college together, a diverse group who love and accept one another unconditionally, pulling one another through crises and providing emotional, physical, and financial support. Together they wage war on the bulldozers that would bury their homes, and, ultimately, on the city that does not care what happens to them.

This is a story about geography, history, and strength, about love and friendship, about fighting for the people and places we love--even if no one else knows they exist. Elegant, poetic, bursting with color, Mathangi Subramanian's novel is a moving and celebratory story of girls on the cusp of adulthood who find joy just in the basic act of living.

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PDF: DOWNLOAD

[Neelkantha]

Excellent collections buddy. Good to have all my favorite books under the same roof. Thank you so much. Repped you.