Books with author Michael Herman

For readers of Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air, the acclaimed founder of Death over Dinner offers a practical, inspiring guide to life's most difficult yet important conversation Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death--and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered. Yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner--an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and really talk about the one thing we all have in common. Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date; in just three years, it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having these end-of-life conversations. As Arianna Huffington said, "We are such a fast-food culture, I love the idea of making the dinner last for hours. These are the conversations that will help us to evolve."Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations--not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time- and dinner- tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful--ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

Sixteen-year-old Soliloquy’s life is anything but normal. Deserted by a mother who speaks in tongues. Informally adopted by her boyfriend’s family that owns a tequila distillery and agave farm. Visited by strange dreams filled with coded message and premonition. She is not your typical teenager. But when three alien spacecraft attack the farm, her life takes a twist down the proverbial rabbit hole.Driven into ice caves beneath the farm, she learns strange secrets about her mother, the family she is with, and the invading aliens. Nothing is what it seemed. Yet to survive, she and the family must transform in a way that will change them forever. Their response over the next twenty-four hours will have repercussions far beyond their little farm. For them, it is world war with their farm as the beachhead.

They Were White and They Were Slaves is a thoroughly researched challenge to the conventional historiography of colonial and industrial labor, a stunning journey into a hidden epoch, the slave trade of Whites, hundreds of thousands of whom were kidnapped, chained, whipped and worked to death in the American colonies and during the Industrial Revolution. This is a chronicle that has never been fully told, part of a vital heritage that has until now comprised the dustiest shelf in the darkest corner of suppressed history.

2017 Book Excellence Award Winner for Multicultural Fiction2018 International Book Awards - Award Winning Finalist in the Category "Fiction: Short Story"Trolls and Hidden Folk are a part of daily life in Iceland. This collection of Icelandic folklore and legends comes from the days of the Vikings. The twenty-five short stories are centuries old and have been updated for today's readers of all ages. Children and adults alike will love to delve into this fantastic collection of traditional Icelandic fairy tales and legends. These short stories of trolls, elves with magical powers, and Hidden People have been passed down from generation to generation. First written down a hundreds of years ago, the stories are now brought together and updated for a modern audience, so now you too can read about the trolls who freely roamed Iceland, the race of Hidden People with strong magical powers and of the four powerful beings who still protect Iceland from invaders to this day. Packed full of fascinating myths, this collection of folklore is a must for anyone wanting to discover a world of mermaids and mermen, giants, shape-shifting seals and dragons in disguise.

High-school football star Matt Barnes was on the top of the world until a freak snowboarding accident ended his promising sports career and left him with a permanent limp. As he struggles to accept his changed body, Matt becomes depressed and isolated. Instead of college football camp, he faces a summer job at the local golf club. Then by chance Matt lands an internship at the Justice Project, an organization that defends the wrongly convicted. The other intern is his high-school nemesis, Sonya Livingstone, a quick-witted social activist with little time for jock culture. The two slowly develop a friendship as they investigate the case of Ray Richardson, who was convicted of murdering his parents twenty-one years ago. Matt and Sonya are soon convinced that Ray is innocent―but how will they prove it? Unraveling the cold case takes them on a journey filled with twists, turns, deception and danger. It will take dedication, perseverance and courage to unmask the real murderer. Can those same qualities help Matt move on to a life not defined by football?

Leverage the power of R to elegantly manage crucial geospatial analysis tasksAbout This BookWrite powerful R scripts to manipulate your spatial dataGain insight from spatial patterns utilizing R's advanced computation and visualization capabilitiesWork within a single spatial analysis environment from start to finishWho This Book Is ForThis book is intended for anyone who wants to learn how to efficiently analyze geospatial data with R, including GIS analysts, researchers, educators, and students who work with spatial data and who are interested in expanding their capabilities through programming. The book assumes familiarity with the basic geographic information concepts (such as spatial coordinates), but no prior experience with R and/or programming is required. By focusing on R exclusively, you will not need to depend on any external software—a working installation of R is all that is necessary to begin.What You Will LearnMake inferences from tables by joining, reshaping, and aggregatingFamiliarize yourself with the R geospatial data analysis ecosystemPrepare reproducible, publication-quality plots and mapsEfficiently process numeric data, characters, and datesReshape tabular data into the necessary form for the specific task at handWrite R scripts to automate the handling of raster and vector spatial layersProcess elevation rasters and time series visualizations of satellite imagesPerform GIS operations such as overlays and spatial queries between layersSpatially interpolate meteorological data to produce climate mapsIn DetailR is a simple, effective, and comprehensive programming language and environment that is gaining ever-increasing popularity among data analysts.This book provides you with the necessary skills to successfully carry out complete geospatial data analyses, from data import to presentation of results.Learning R for Geospatial Analysis is composed of step-by-step tutorials, starting with the language basics before proceeding to cover the main GIS operations and data types. Visualization of spatial data is vital either during the various analysis steps and/or as the final product, and this book shows you how to get the most out of R's visualization capabilities. The book culminates with examples of cutting-edge applications utilizing R's strengths as a statistical and graphical tool.

Sixteen-year-old Soliloquy’s life is anything but normal. Deserted by a mother who speaks in tongues. Informally adopted by her boyfriend’s family that owns a tequila distillery and agave farm. Visited by strange dreams filled with coded message and premonition. She is not your typical teenager. But when three alien spacecraft attack the farm, her life takes a twist down the proverbial rabbit hole.Driven into ice caves beneath the farm, she learns strange secrets about her mother, the family she is with, and the invading aliens. Nothing is what it seemed. Yet to survive, she and the family must transform in a way that will change them forever. Their response over the next twenty-four hours will have repercussions far beyond their little farm. For them, it is world war with their farm as the beachhead.

When Michael Copperman left Stanford University for the Mississippi Delta in 2002, he imagined he would lift underprivileged children from the narrow horizons of rural poverty. Well-meaning but naïve, the Asian American from the West Coast soon lost his bearings in a world divided between black and white. He had no idea how to manage a classroom or help children navigate the considerable challenges they faced. In trying to help students, he often found he couldn't afford to give what they required--sometimes with heartbreaking consequences. His desperate efforts to save child after child were misguided but sincere. He offered children the best invitations to success he could manage. But he still felt like an outsider who was failing the children and himself.Teach For America has for a decade been the nation's largest employer of recent college graduates but has come under increasing criticism in recent years even as it has grown exponentially. This memoir considers the distance between the idealism of the organization's creed that "One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education and reach their full potential" and what it actually means to teach in America's poorest and most troubled public schools.Copperman's memoir vividly captures his disorientation in the divided world of the Delta, even as the author marvels at the wit and resilience of the children in his classroom. To them, he is at once an authority figure and a stranger minority than even they are--a lone Asian, an outsider among outsiders. His journey is of great relevance to teachers, administrators, and parents longing for quality education in America. His frank story shows that the solutions for impoverished schools are far from simple.

A year ago, 16 year-old Nick Macklin had it all. He was an A student and a talented hockey player, with a beautiful girlfriend and the best dad in the world - a man who was not only there for him when his mom died, but was also a star player for the Vancouver Canucks. Then the bottom fell out. His father was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for a crime Nick is convinced he didn’t commit. Angry and bitter, alienated from school and friends, Nick devotes himself to seeking justice for his father. Who framed him? And why? But freeing his dad is not his biggest challenge. His obsession with proving his father’s innocence threatens to ruin his own life. Can Nick put the pieces of the puzzle together - and save himself and his dad? Shortlisted for The John Spray Mystery Award

Seventeen year-old Alex Petrovic is thrilled to be playing goal in an international hockey tournament. He has his sights set on a college hockey scholarship, and scouts from all the big-time schools will be there. After a game against a team from Eastern Europe, he shakes hands with the opposing goalie, Stefan Divac, and finds himself staring at his identical double. At first he doesn’t know what to make of it. Then his mother sees Stefan—and faints dead away. The chance meeting uncovers family secrets buried in the wake of a civil war back in their home country that separated the brothers when they were infants. When the two war criminals who were responsible for tearing their family apart escape, Alex dreams of bringing them to justice. Can his dream become reality? Shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Mystery Award