If you have ever wondered whether this life is not all that it's cracked up to be, take heart. This book is designed to tease your curiosity a little further in this regard. Finding a greater sense of purpose and contentment in this life is crucial in being able to look back with infinitely more satisfaction, and far fewer regrets. In hindsight, there is much that our schools and universities did not teach us that would have been good to know. So, the overarching goal of this book is to offer the reader some insights into this 'hidden curriculum' of life - the stuff we have to find out for ourselves from the School of Hard Knocks. As we climb the ladder of life, we may encounter some loose rungs or even one or two missing ones. At times we may even feel that our ladder is leaning up against the wrong wall. Safely navigating our way up life's ladder is both an art and a science. The chapters that follow are written with 'the big decisions' in mind - decisions that, made wisely, can change the trajectory of our lives for the better, forever. If you're looking for a book that cuts to the chase on what matters in this life, this is it. In a no-holds barred, down-to-earth approach, author Stuart Symington lays out his formula for a life worth living. Some of the rungs on Stuart's ladder of life include: Breaking the mould of your upbringing, despite the best efforts and intentions of those who raised you. Disengaging from life on 'autopilot', and switching to 'manual' to take charge of your destiny. Seeking a balance among the six most important areas of your life: health, wealth, family, friends, livelihood and spirituality. Getting to know yourself really well so that you can become your own best friend, and the best version of who you can be. Seeing the bigger picture in life, and tackling - with a sense of urgency and zest - the opportunities that present themselves. Taking a leaf out of the books of those wise souls who made a mega-difference while walking this planet.

The Ladder of Life is the true story of a strong and resilient family, whose pilgrimage takes them from a life on a farm as sharecroppers in southeast Texas, to the bright lights of the city. Overwhelming hardships and a deadly plague invade the family and threaten their journey. These misfortunes cause a loving and supportive father to buckle under the unbearable load and fall into a state of despair. Fortunately, the soft-spoken mother courageously takes the reins and leads the family up the ladder to the promised destination.

These Guidelines represent the first attempt to provide international recommendations on collecting, publishing, and analysing subjective well-being data.

Darkness will not last forever. Together we can climb toward the light. They were as troubled as we, our ancestors, those who came before us, and all for the very same reasons: fear of illness, a broken heart, fights in the family, the threat of another war. Corrupt politicians walked their stage, and natural disasters appeared without warning. And yet they came through, carrying us within them, through the grief and struggle, through the personal pain and the public chaos, finding their way with love and faith, not giving in to despair but walking upright until their last step was taken. My culture does not honor the ancestors as a quaint spirituality of the past but as a living source of strength for the present. They did it and so will we. In the same voice that has comforted and challenged countless readers through his daily social media posts, Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. Every day Charleston spends time in prayer. Every day he writes down what he hears from the Spirit. In Ladder to the Light he shares what he has heard with the rest of us and adds thoughtful reflection to help guide us to the light Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear.

Everyone and everything perpetually evolves and changes, and in our known or unknown quest to understand ourselves and others, we accomplish this one experience at a time. With each conversation, interaction, or thought undertaken, our true nature and our divine heritage return to our understanding and awareness. We awaken to know our position upon the ladder of life and know we are never alone in our climb! Each and every one of us that has walked the face of the earth are upon the ladder and rediscovering our own truthone rung, one experience at a time. As we continually peel away the layers of illusion that conceal our true Being, and as we unlearn that which has been imprinted within our minds and our thoughts from a young age, we can lovingly help one another to the topwhere the sky is not the limit!

This invaluable book is an autobiographical account of doing scientific research in India. It provides an insight to the perseverance of a scientist from a developing country. His relentless pursuit of excellence in chemistry for more than half a century is a remarkable source of inspiration to young scientists facing modern-day challenges.

“A satire of writerly ambition wrapped in a psychological thriller . . . An homage to Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, but its execution is entirely Boyne’s own.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent—but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel. Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall. . . . Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso. Praise for A Ladder to the Sky “Boyne's mastery of perspective, last seen in The Heart's Invisible Furies, works beautifully here. . . . Boyne understands that it's far more interesting and satisfying for a reader to see that narcissist in action than to be told a catchall phrase. Each step Maurice Swift takes skyward reveals a new layer of calumny he's willing to engage in, and the desperation behind it . . . so dark it seems almost impossible to enjoy reading A Ladder to the Sky as much as you definitely will enjoy reading it.”—NPR “Delicious . . . spins out over several decades with thrilling unpredictability, following Maurice as he masters the art of co-opting the stories of others in increasingly dubious ways. And while the book reads as a thriller with a body count that would make Highsmith proud, it is also an exploration of morality and art: Where is the line between inspiration and thievery? To whom does a story belong?”—Vanity Fair