The Death of the Heart is perhaps Elizabeth Bowen's best-known book. As she deftly and delicately exposes the cruelty that lurks behind the polished surfaces of conventional society, Bowen reveals herself as a masterful novelist who combines a sense of humor with a devastating gift for divining human motivations. In this piercing story of innocence betrayed set in the thirties, the orphaned Portia is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London.There she encounters the attractive, carefree cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and her fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal--and sets in motion one of the most moving and desperate flights of the heart in modern literature.

What's dead is alive, what's alive is dead?Now that the White Sorceress, Bringer of Life has been found, and the rightful King of Castilles restored to the throne, all that's left to do is live happily ever after?until another ominous prophecy disrupts the peace. Rumors of undead things roaming the land and chaos tipping the world into darkness spur Reina and Quinn into another journey, but the new prophecy holds a nasty surprise. The two must travel to the Southern Plains with The One Who Failed, and that can only mean?Niles must join them.They must locate the elusive Heart of Death and stop the Chaos Wielder from turning the world into the living dead, but combatting a deadly power stronger than anything they've ever known is no simple undertaking. To find the answers they need, they'll have to journey through dangerous, enchanted lands, make untold sacrifices, and retake control of the talisman's unexpectedly volatile magic.

In the vein of Eat, Pray, Love, this powerful memoir chronicles a woman's search for meaning following a paradigm-shifting near-death experience Karen Henson Jones was on the conventional path to success in the corporate world when a sudden cardiac event at the age of 30 took her to the brink of death. During an otherworldly near-death experience, she was presented with a choice to leave her body or to return to Earth. When her request to live was granted, Karen was forced to come to terms with the life she had been living. With warmth, wonder, and wit, Heart of Miracles follows Karen on an inspirational journey through India, Italy, Bhutan, and the Holy Land of Israel in search of a more meaningful life. Exploring the power of meditation, Western medical science, the transformative doctrines of reincarnation, and the teachings of Jesus, Karen encourages us to embrace the full possibilities of our spiritual selves.

In The Heart of Grief, Attig gives us an inspiring and profoundly insightful meditation on the meaning of grief, showing how it can be the path toward a lasting love of those who have died. Recounting dozens of stories of people who have struggled with deaths in their lives, he describes grieving as a transition from loving in presence to loving in separation. The thing we long for most--the return of the one who is missing--is the very thing that we can never have, kindling the intense pain of our loss. But Attig argues that we can, in fact, build an enduring, even reciprocal, love, a love that tempers our pain. He tells stories, for instance, of a young girl taking some of her dead sister's practical advice as she enters high school, a widower realizing how much intimate life with his wife has colored his character, and an athlete drawing inspiration from his dead brother and achieving what they had dreamed of together. Far from forgetting our loved ones, Attig urges us to explore ways in which our memories of the departed can be sustained, our understanding of them enhanced, and their legacies embraced, so they continue to play active roles in our everyday and inner lives. Groundbreaking and original, inspiring and compassionate, The Heart of Grief offers guidance, comfort, and a new understanding of how we grieve.

In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined way the surgeons walked away. As he soon understood, this detachment is a crucial survival strategy in a profession where death is only a heartbeat away. In Open Heart, Westaby reflects on over 11,000 surgeries, showing us why the procedures have never become routine and will never be. With astonishing compassion, he recounts harrowing and sometimes hopeful stories from his operating room: we meet a pulseless man who lives with an electric heart pump, an expecting mother who refuses surgery unless the doctors let her pregnancy reach full term, and a baby who gets a heart transplant-only to die once it's in place. For readers of Atul Gawande's Being Mortal and of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm, Open Heart offers a soul-baring account of a life spent in constant confrontation with death.

Addressing the pathology of the heart and cardiovascular system from a forensic perspective, Pathology of the Heart and Sudden Death in Forensic Investigations guides the pathologist toward the effective resolution of cases. It critically reviews pertinent facts by revisiting pathologic findings and comparing them to etiopathogenic hypotheses, prop

Dealing with grief in a practical manner, this guide offers compassionate tips for those affected by a traumatic death. Included are topics such as coping with family stress, expressing feelings of hurt and anger, dealing with hurtful comments, and exploring feelings of guilt. Each of the 100 suggestions is aimed at reducing the confusion, anxiety, and huge personal void in order to help survivors begin their lives again. Some of the tips include understanding the special characteristics of trauma grief, planting a tree in memory of the person who died, and making connections with others affected by a similar death.