Divine Misfortune

Divine Misfortune PDF

Author: A. Lee Martinez

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 2010-03-26

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 0316072168

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Divine Misfortune is a story of gods and mortals -- -in worship, in love, and at parties. Teri and Phil had never needed their own personal god. But when Phil is passed up for a promotion -- again-it's time to take matters into their own hands. And look online. Choosing a god isn't as simple as you would think. There are too many choices; and they often have very hefty prices for their eternal devotion: blood, money, sacrifices, and vows of chastity. But then they found Luka, raccoon god of prosperity. All he wants is a small cut of their good fortune. Oh -- and can he crash on their couch for a few days? Throw in a heartbroken love goddess and an ancient deity bent on revenge and not even the gods can save Teri and Phil.

The Misfortune of Marion Palm

The Misfortune of Marion Palm PDF

Author: Emily Culliton

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1524731900

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A wildly entertaining debut about a Brooklyn Heights wife and mother who has embezzled a small fortune from her children's private school and makes a run for it, leaving behind her trust fund poet husband, his maybe-secret lover, her two daughters, and a school board who will do anything to find her. Marion Palm prefers not to think of herself as a thief but rather "a woman who embezzles." Over the years she has managed to steal $180,000 from her daughters' private school, money that has paid for European vacations, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and perpetually unused state-of-the-art exercise equipment. But, now, when the school faces an audit, Marion pulls piles of rubber-banded cash from their basement hiding places and flees, leaving her family to grapple with the baffled detectives, the irate school board, and the mother-shaped hole in their house. Told from the points of view of Nathan, Marion's husband, heir to a long-diminished family fortune; Ginny, Marion's teenage daughter who falls helplessly in love at the slightest provocation; Jane, Marion's youngest who is obsessed with a missing person of her own; and Marion herself, on the lam--and hiding in plain sight.

Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer PDF

Author: Wesley Stace

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2011-02-01

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 142992926X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of The Wall Street Journal's Best fiction books of 2011 England, 1923. A gentleman critic named Leslie Shepherd tells the macabre story of a gifted young composer, Charles Jessold. On the eve of his revolutionary new opera's premiere, Jessold murders his wife and her lover, and then commits suicide in a scenario that strangely echoes the plot of his opera---which Shepherd has helped to write. The opera will never be performed. Shepherd first shares his police testimony, then recalls his relationship with Jessold in his role as critic, biographer, and friend. And with each retelling of the story, significant new details cast light on the identity of the real victim in Jessold's tragedy. This ambitiously intricate novel is set against a turbulent moment in music history, when atonal sounds first reverberated through the concert halls of Europe, just as the continent readied itself for war. What if Jessold's opera was not only a betrayal of Shepherd, but of England as well? Wesley Stace has crafted a dazzling story of counter-melodies and counter-narratives that will keep you guessing to the end.

Acute Misfortune

Acute Misfortune PDF

Author: Erik Jensen

Publisher: Black Inc.

Published: 2019-04-29

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1922231800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In 2008, the artist Adam Cullen invited journalist Erik Jensen to stay in his spare room and write his biography. What followed were four years of intense honesty and a relationship that became increasingly claustrophobic. At one point Cullen shot Jensen, in part to see how committed he was to the book. At another, he threw Jensen from a speeding motorbike. The book contract Cullen used to convince Jensen to stay with him never existed. Acute Misfortune is a riveting account of the life and death of one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, the man behind the Archibald Prize–winning portrait of David Wenham. Jensen follows Cullen through drug deals and periods of deep self-reflection, onwards into his court appearance for weapons possession and finally his death in 2012 at the age of forty-six. After much critical acclaim, Acute Misfortune was developed into a feature film, winning The Age Critics Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2018. The story is by turns tender and horrifying: a spare tale of art, sex, drugs and childhood, told at close quarters and without judgement. Winner of the 2015 Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature Shortlisted in the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and for the 2015 Walkley Book Award ‘Erik Jensen is a Boswell or Vasari for our baffled, fractured, fucked-up times. Acute Misfortune is the most intimate, revealing, and original take on an artist’s life I know of.’ —Sebastian Smee ‘Erik Jensen gives us that ingenious place where biography is also art.’ —Jennifer Clement ‘This is supposed to be about an artist, a wild man, his lifetime, and it is; but Jensen has written such a beautiful window that all art and life is shining through. I'm supposed to be an artist but I cannot put this down.’ —DBC Pierre

Isle of Misfortune

Isle of Misfortune PDF

Author: Geoffrey Leavenworth

Publisher: TCU Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780875652696

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Gordo, a freelance writer, is married to Ana, an attorney. The couple has built a genteel life in the Oleander City. Sons Jake and Sam attend private schools, the family is active in the community, life is good.".

Sion's Misfortune

Sion's Misfortune PDF

Author: Chen Jiafei

Publisher: Karadi Tales Picturebooks

Published: 2020-09

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9788193654255

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A retelling of an old Chinese folktale that is about staying positive in the face of adversity.

My Summer of Love and Misfortune

My Summer of Love and Misfortune PDF

Author: Lindsay Wong

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Published: 2020-06-02

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1534443347

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Crazy Rich Asians meets Love & Gelato in this hilarious, quirky novel about a Chinese-American teen who is thrust into the decadent world of Beijing high society when she is sent away to spend the summer in China. Iris Wang is having a bit of a rough start to her summer: Her boyfriend cheated on her, she didn’t get into any colleges, and she has no idea who she is or what she wants to do with her life. She’s always felt torn about being Chinese-American, feeling neither Chinese nor American enough to claim either identity. She’s just a sad pizza combo from Domino’s, as far as she’s concerned. In an attempt to snap her out of her funk, Iris’s parents send her away to visit family in Beijing, with the hopes that Iris would “reconnect with her culture” and “find herself.” Iris resents the condescension, but even she admits that this might be a good opportunity to hit the reset button on the apocalyptic disaster that has become her life. With this trip, Iris expects to eat a few dumplings, meet some family, and visit a tourist hotspot or two. Instead, she gets swept up in the ridiculous, opulent world of Beijing’s wealthy elite, leading her to unexpected and extraordinary discoveries about her family, her future, and herself.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude PDF

Author: Wilco W. van Dijk

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-07-24

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1139992015

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

When someone suffers a mishap, a setback or a downfall, we sometimes find ourselves experiencing schadenfreude - an emotion defined as deriving pleasure from another's misfortune. Schadenfreude is a common experience and an emotion which is seemingly inherent to social being. This book offers a comprehensive summary of current theoretical and empirical work on schadenfreude from psychological, philosophical and other scientific perspectives. The chapters explore justice as an underlying motive for schadenfreude, and the role played by social comparison processes and envy in evoking pleasure at the misfortunes of others in interpersonal relations. Schadenfreude is also described as a common phenomenon in intergroup relations. This is a compelling volume on a fascinating subject matter that aims to increase our understanding of the nature of this emotion and the role it plays in social relations.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude PDF

Author: Tiffany Watt Smith

Publisher: Little, Brown Spark

Published: 2018-11-20

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0316470295

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

An entertaining and insightful exploration of schadenfreude: the deliciously dark and complex joy we've all felt, from time to time, at news of others' misfortunes. You might feel schadenfreude when... the boss calls himself "Head of Pubic Services" on an important letter. a cool guy swings back on his chair, and it tips over. a Celebrity Vegan is caught in the cheese aisle. an aggressive driver cuts you off - and then gets pulled over. your co-worker heats up fish in the microwave, then gets food poisoning. an urban unicyclist almost collides with a parked car. someone cuts the line for the ATM - and then it swallows their card. your effortlessly attractive friend gets dumped. We all know the pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune. The Germans named this furtive delight in another's failure schadenfreude (from schaden damage, and freude, joy), and it has perplexed philosophers and psychologists for centuries. Why can it be so satisfying to witness another's distress? And what, if anything, should we do about it? Schadenfreude illuminates this hidden emotion, inviting readers to reflect on its pleasures, and how we use other people's miseries to feel better about ourselves. Written in an exploratory, evocative form, it weaves examples from literature, philosophy, film, and music together with personal observation and historical and cultural analysis. And in today's world of polarized politics, twitter trolls and "sidebars of shame," it couldn't be timelier. Engaging, insightful, and entertaining, Schadenfreude makes the case for thinking afresh about the role this much-maligned emotion plays in our lives -- perhaps even embracing it.

The Political Economy of Fortune and Misfortune

The Political Economy of Fortune and Misfortune PDF

Author: Scott Timcke

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2023-03-31

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1529221773

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Luck greatly influences a person’s quality of life. Yet little of our politics looks at how institutions can amplify good or bad luck that widens social inequality. But societies can change their fortune. Too often debates about inequality focus on the accuracy of data or modelling while missing the greater point about ethics and exploitation. In the wake of growing disparity between the 1% and other classes, this book combines philosophical insights with social theory to offer a much-needed political economy of life chances. Timcke advances new thought on the role luck plays in redistributive justice in 21st century capitalism.