Rowdy, ecstatic, and sometimes stern, these teaching stories and fables reveal new and very human properties in Rumi's vision. Included here are the notorious "Latin parts" that Reynold Nicholson felt were too unseemly to appear in English in his 1920s translation. For Rumi, anything that human beings do--however compulsive--affords a glimpse into the inner life. Here are more than 40 fables or teaching stories that deal with love, laughter, death, betrayal, and the soul. The stories are exuberant, earthy, and bursting with vitality--much like a painting by Hieronymus Bosch or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The characters are guilty, lecherous, tricky, ribald, and finally possessors of opened souls. Barks writes: "These teaching stories are a kind of scrimshaw--intricately carved, busy figures, confused and threatening, and weirdly funny. This is an entertaining collection from one of the greatest spiritual poets of all time, rendered by his most popular translator. "The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along."--Rumi

Leadership has for too long been treated as a function and not as a relationship. Zina Sutch and Patrick Malone argue that successful leadership must be based on love (altruism and empathy) and laughter (positive emotions and joy). Science tells us that humans are deeply wired for empathy and compassion and that our emotional selves help us make better decisions and motivate others. However, the tactics we use to train leaders bear little reflection of these advancements; we're still creating competent but emotionally distant leaders who “manage human assets” and lead by setting goals, deadlines, and deliverables. Zina Sutch and Patrick Malone hope to flip a light switch and illuminate, above all else, that leadership begins with heart and soul. Too many training programs reduce leadership to an equation, matrix, or acronym. But leadership is a relationship. It's one human helping another. The most successful leaders show they genuinely care about their employees and are, well, fun. It's just like any relationship. In seven succinct chapters, the authors show that people lead best when they tap into their genetically driven human nature to love and nurture, connect and trust. Leading with love and laughter offers powerful dividends: tighter teams, stronger performance, improved morale, greater trust, more creativity, and even better health. While Sutch and Malone cite the science and offer examples, tips, and practices, their larger purpose is to reintroduce the warmth of human interaction and emotion as the foundation of what leadership is all about.

There are moments and incidents in everyone’s life that are hilarious, absurd and sometimes crazy. Incidents that could make the reader remember something similar that happened to them or simply enjoy the joke. Or else read about a time that is quite different from now. That’s the kind of memories I have been sharing in my newspaper “middles” and my Facebook postings over the years. Life is serious, sometimes worrisome and often complicated where a breather is usually welcome. I have divided the contents into three parts. Salad Days deal with incidents belonging to my school, college and university days and as a lecturer. What happened when we wanted to buy English records for our common room? Or had our letters censored by the hostel superintendent? What was my first job in college like in a small and conservative town where most people did not believe in higher studies for women? Learning to Be a Housewife speaks of the next chapter in my life where hilarious mistakes of every kind happened. How did I deal with the strange fish-seller, the vet and the prying neighbours? And That is Life has incidents and musings right up to my twilight years, many of them about a different time and place, and my final realization that Life never stops surprising you.

Brimming with humor, warmth, and candid memories, Love and Laughter pays tribute to marriage and togetherness. In this poignant memoir, Rose E. Fox honors her relationship with Ken Fox, her late husband, and offers an intimate look at their friendship and love, as well as their vulnerabilities, trust, and devotion to each other. When Rose and Ken first met more than fifty-five years ago, they shared similar backgrounds, but their personalities were nothing alike, and their relationship faced inevitable challenges. Here, Rose looks back on their time together-from their first blissful years, to their sometimes rocky relationship, to the final days of Ken's life as he succumbed to a twelve-year battle with prostrate cancer at age seventy-six. Anyone in a marriage-and anyone who has suffered the loss of a true love-will be heartened and uplifted by this timeless love story, which captures a full range of emotions and celebrates the kind of courage, commitment, and spirit it takes to make a relationship last and thrive.

"An absolutely dazzling entertainment. . . . Arousing on every level—political, erotic, intellectual, and above all, humorous." —Newsweek "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius." —New York Times Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced.

Leadership has for too long been treated as a function and not as a relationship. Zina Sutch and Patrick Malone argue that successful leadership must be based on love (altruism and empathy) and laughter (positive emotions and joy). Science tells us that humans are deeply wired for empathy and compassion and that our emotional selves help us make better decisions and motivate others. However, the tactics we use to train leaders bear little reflection of these advancements; we're still creating competent but emotionally distant leaders who “manage human assets” and lead by setting goals, deadlines, and deliverables. Zina Sutch and Patrick Malone hope to flip a light switch and illuminate, above all else, that leadership begins with heart and soul. Too many training programs reduce leadership to an equation, matrix, or acronym. But leadership is a relationship. It's one human helping another. The most successful leaders show they genuinely care about their employees and are, well, fun. It's just like any relationship. In seven succinct chapters, the authors show that people lead best when they tap into their genetically driven human nature to love and nurture, connect and trust. Leading with love and laughter offers powerful dividends: tighter teams, stronger performance, improved morale, greater trust, more creativity, and even better health. While Sutch and Malone cite the science and offer examples, tips, and practices, their larger purpose is to reintroduce the warmth of human interaction and emotion as the foundation of what leadership is all about.

Meet Loraine Rees, a respected medium trusted by law enforcement to help solve difficult cases. Coming from a long line of clairvoyants, she has seen spirits ever since she was a child. Her impressive abilities increased after her heart stopped during surgery. Is there LIFE AFTER DEATH? Find out from someone who has been there. Here she shares her gift to bring truth from beyond.