The New Yorker staff writer and Filterworld author Kyle Chayka examines the deep roots-and untapped possibilities-of our newfound, all-consuming drive to reduce. “Less is more”: Everywhere we hear the mantra. Marie Kondo and other decluttering gurus promise that shedding our stuff will solve our problems. We commit to cleanse diets and strive for inbox zero. Amid the frantic pace and distraction of everyday life, we covet silence-and airy, Instagrammable spaces in which to enjoy it. The popular term for this brand of upscale austerity, “minimalism,” has mostly come to stand for things to buy and consume. But minimalism has richer, deeper, and altogether more valuable gifts to offer. In The Longing for Less, one of our sharpest cultural critics delves beneath the glossy surface of minimalist trends, seeking better ways to claim the time and space we crave. Kyle Chayka's search leads him to the philosophical and spiritual origins of minimalism, and to the stories of artists such as Agnes Martin and Donald Judd; composers such as John Cage and Julius Eastman; architects and designers; visionaries and misfits. As Chayka looks anew at their extraordinary lives and explores the places where they worked-from Manhattan lofts to the Texas high desert and the back alleys of Kyoto-he reminds us that what we most require is presence, not absence. The result is an elegant synthesis of our minimalist desires and our profound emotional needs. With a new afterword by the author.

This book is about silence and power and how they interact. It argues that only by studying how silence works—how it is implicated in the construction of meaning—can we arrive at the elusive roots of power in all its dimensions. Silence becomes the currency of power by delineating the margins or what we perceive and through a sleight of hand wherein behaviors undertaken in the service of self-interest appear instead as inevitable and devoid of human agency. The theoretical load of this argument is carried by vivid ethnographic material dealing with music, linguistic behavior, racial conflicts, work dislocations, and the construction of anthropological subjects and texts.

A personal and cultural exploration of silence and its value in our lives—“[an] artful book, mixing autobiography, travel writing, meditation, and essay” (Independent, UK). In her late forties, after a noisy upbringing as one of six children and adulthood as a vocal feminist and mother, Sara Maitland found herself living alone in the country and, to her surprise, falling in love with silence. In this fascinating, intelligent, and beautifully written book, Maitland describes how she began to explore this new love, spending periods of silence in the Sinai desert, the Scottish hills, and a remote cottage on the Isle of Skye. Maitland also delves deep into the rich cultural history of silence, exploring its significance in fairy tale and myth, its importance to the Western and Eastern religious traditions, and its use in psychoanalysis and artistic expression. Her story culminates in her building a hermitage on an isolated moor in Galloway. “Her book is probably unique in its subject, and timely, because good, healing silence is becoming hard to find, and we may not know we need it” (Guardian, UK).

A riveting suspense thriller about the reuniting of birth mothers with their adopted children and the madman who preys on them After two highly praised psychological thrillers, Mark Nykanen returns with his most spellbinding story yet. Suzanne Trayle is a 'Search Angel' whose success in tracking down and reuniting birth mothers with their adopted children has earned her national fame. Known as 'The Orphan's Private Eye,' Suzanne has reunited thousands of mothers with their children, but has failed to find the son she put up for adoption thirty years ago.

Four strangers wake up alone in a room. A masked man is responsible for their suspenseful predicament, and offers them a compromise: If they provide one answer to his one question within sixty minutes, they will be set free. How difficult can one question be?

Book # 2 in the Silence Series # Sequel to ""Listen Before You Speak"" - the story of Elijah and Blake Elijah is no ordinary boy. Never has been, and he is probably sure that he never will be the normal boy everybody wants him to be. How can you be ordinary and normal after your first love dies? After your father was the one responsible? How do you cope when your English teacher is the one who gives you a new home? Blend in a crazy friend and the fact that Elijah who learned how to speak one word of a time thanks to Blake has gone completely mute again. Will he ever be resurrected from the pain that is threatening to overwhelm him to the point where he will cut his own wrists? Is there any way someone could save him this time? Is there really that many words that can be spoken in silence? Can you truly be put back together when you are more than broken and half the pieces are lost forever? This story is PG13, since it may have strong language. This story may contain self-harm issues, abuse, and other traumatic scenes. Please be advised that the main character is homosexual, and therefore there will be romantic actions between same sex characters. If that makes you uncomfortable in any way, please refrain from reading."