At a time when every disagreement turns toxic, world champion debater Bo Seo reveals the timeless secrets of effective communication and persuasion. When Bo Seo was 8 years old, he and his family migrated from Korea to Australia. At the time, he did not speak English, and, unsurprisingly, struggled at school. But, then, in year five, something happened to change his life: he was introduced to debating. Immediately, he was hooked. It turned out, perhaps counterintuitively, that debating was the perfect activity for someone shy and unsure of himself. It became a way for Bo not only to find his voice, but to excel socially and academically. He went on to win world titles with the Australian schools and Harvard University teams. But debating isn't just about winning or losing an argument: it's about information gathering, truth finding, lucidity, organization, and persuasion. It's about being able to engage with views you disagree with, without the argument turning toxic. Good Arguments shares insights from the strategy, structure and history of debating to teach readers how they might better communicate with friends, family and colleagues. Touching on everything from the radical politics of Malcom X to Artificial Intelligence, Seo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, far from being a source of conflict, good-faith debate can enrich our daily lives. Indeed, these good arguments are more important than ever at time when bad faith is all around, and our democracy seems so imperiled. 'From two-time world champion debater Bo Seo, a thoughtful, instructive and eloquent meditation on the art of debate and why its central pillars - fact-finding, reason, persuasion and listening to opponents - are so valuable in today's alarming ecosystem of misinformation and extreme emotion. When Bo Seo's family immigrated from South Korea to Australia, he was a shy, conflict-averse eight year old who worried about being an outsider, and in "Good Arguments," he recounts how debate not only helped him to cross language lines, but also gave him confidence and a voice of his own' - Michiko Kakutani, former chief book critic for The New York Times.

Did you keep a list of the words coined by Covid? Wayne Grady did! They're deftly woven into a journal/timeline, taking us through two years of surrealism and limbo.—Margaret AtwoodThis exploration of the many new terms of the Covid-19 pandemic provides insight into the ways an ever-evolving vocabulary helped us cope with our anxiety and adapt to a new reality. When the pandemic struck in early 2020, Wayne Grady started collecting the words and phrases that arose from our shared global experience. Some, such as “uptick” and “pivot,” had existed before but now took on new meaning, and others, such as “covidivorce,” “quarantini,” “covexit,” and “shecession,” appeared for the first time, their meaning instantly clear. Through this new vocabulary, we became more able to adapt to change, to domesticate it in a sense, and to reduce our fears. Moving from the very beginning of the pandemic (the “Before Times”) and our early response to it through the peaks and troughs of the various waves in countries throughout the world, and ending with a contemplation of what the “After Times” might look like, this book takes us on a journey through the pandemic and illuminates both how this new language has unfolded and how it has changed the way we think about ourselves and each other.

An entertaining and illuminating collection of weird, wonderful, and downright baffling words from the origins of English—and what they reveal about the lives of the earliest English speakersOld English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer’s Middle English, Old English—the language of Beowulf—defies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Used throughout much of Britain more than a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven’t changed (like word), others that are unrecognizable (such as neorxnawang, or paradise), and some that are mystifying even in translation (gafol-fisc, or tax-fish). In this delightful book, Hana Videen gathers a glorious trove of these gems and uses them to illuminate the lives of the earliest English speakers. We discover a world where choking on a bit of bread might prove your guilt, where fiend-ship was as likely as friendship, and where you might grow up to be a laughter-smith.The Wordhord takes readers on a journey through Old English words and customs related to practical daily activities (eating, drinking, learning, working); relationships and entertainment; health and the body, mind, and soul; the natural world (animals, plants, and weather); locations and travel (the source of some of the most evocative words in Old English); mortality, religion, and fate; and the imagination and storytelling. Each chapter ends with its own “wordhord”—a list of its Old English terms, with definitions and pronunciations.Entertaining and enlightening, The Wordhord reveals the magical roots of the language you’re reading right now: you’ll never look at—or speak—English in the same way again.

As a physician who has spent nearly two decades chasing bugs all over the world Ñ from Ebola in Uganda, to polio in Pakistan, to SARS in Toronto Ñ leading epidemiologist and public-health doctor Bonnie Henry offers three simple rules to help people avoid getting sick: clean your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, and stay at home when you have a fever. It all boils down to basic hygiene. In this compelling book, Dr. Henry gives a lively account of the evolution of common sickness. She takes readers on a tour through the halls of Microbes Inc., a global "corporation" that has evolved and adapted over billions of years to rule the earth. From viruses to bacteria to parasites and fungi, Dr. Henry profiles the threats and dispels some of the common myths and misinformation about good and bad bugs to bestow upon readers the most important measures needed to keep themselves and their families healthy.

In this memoir of loss, acclaimed writer and comedian Rob Delaney grapples with the fragile miracle of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind.When you're a parent and your child gets hurt or sick, you not only try to help them get better but you also labour under the general belief that you can help them get better. That's not always the case though. Sometimes the nurses and the doctors can't fix what's wrong. Sometimes children die.Rob Delaney's beautiful, bright, gloriously alive son Henry died. He was one when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. An experience beyond comprehension, but an experience Rob must share. Why does he feel compelled to talk about it, to write about it, to make people feel something like what he feels when he knows it will hurt them? Because, despite Henry's death, Rob still loves people. For that reason, he wants them to understand.A Heart That Works is an intimate, unflinching and fiercely funny exploration of loss - from the harrowing illness to the vivid, bodily impact of grief and the blind, furious rage that follows, through to the forceful, unstoppable love that remains. This is the story of what happens when you lose a child, and everything you discover about life in the process.

An Anabaptist-Mennonite finding a home, not in Jerusalem, but in Athens? Cavorting with ancient pagans? Placing Greek poets and playwrights next to Hebrew prophets? Imagining peacemakers in the heroic age that celebrated prowess in war? And, finding inspiration in the writings of the French mystic, Simone Weil? Menno in Athens stages such encounters while blending memoir and meditative travelogue where the wisdom of ancient Greece and the tenets of Anabaptism meet. Menno, the narrator, undertakes a pilgrimage to Greece, where he visits sites once home to ancient poets, sages, playwrights, and philosophers. Along the way, an imposing coincidence with Menno's Anabaptist heritage reveals itself in voices that draw attention to the true cost of violence and discord-voices reiterating an aspiration for peace, and even love. Praise for Menno in Athens Menno in Athens: A Novel. A quirky charmer & unusual travel book & exploration of Greek myths and Christian origins via a young Mennonite. Yikes, naked statues!-Margaret E. Atwood, on Twitter. July 29, 2022. (twitter.com/MargaretAtwood/status/1553121753093873664) This enthralling novel takes us on what might at first seem to be a quixotic pilgrimage to the sites of ancient Greece to validate a vision of how free people can live and thrive in harmony - a vision that two thousand years later found an echo among Anabaptist Mennonites. When the hero, aptly named Menno, leaves the Mennonite town where he grew up he is strenuously warned by his stepfather that he is pursuing false gods. But what Menno unearths in his pilgrimage among the pre-Hellenic Greeks is a record of their scorn, not their celebration, of private wealth and martial glory. And what else but a latter-day version of a polis were those agrarian Mennonite settlements in Russia, Paraguay, or Canada, where small, radically democratic communities could aspire to live a life that was pleasing to God in the midst of warring nations and empires?-Erwin Wiens, retired professor of English Literature, and author of To Antoine: A Novel (Gelassenheit Publications, 2022). Ronald Tiessen was raised in a Mennonite family and fellowship outside Leamington, Ontario. His studies brought him to Conrad Grebel College, the University of Waterloo, the University of Windsor, and thereafter to Greece. After studying Ancient Greek history in Athens, he made his home on Pelee Island, the setting of his 2016 novel The Pele' Harbour for Odd Birds. Following his studies, he retained an unflagging curiosity about ancient Greece and has returned numerous times. Menno in Athens bridges two defining experiences in his life-his Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage and his love for Greece. Lisa Rollo Kipp is a multimedia artist from Pelee Island, Ontario, whose love for art began at a very early age. The encouragement of her parents and a gifted high school teacher inspired her to continue her exploration of art. She currently enjoys oil painting, pen and ink drawing, and working with found items in nature.

FROM THE WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZEBirnam Wood is on the move...Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker - or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

From the celebrated author of February and Caught comes an exhilarating new novel that asks: What makes a family? How does it shape us? And can we ever really choose who we love? As the snowstorm of the century rages, twenty-one-year-old Xavier is beaten and stabbed in a vicious attack. His mother, Jules, must fight her way through the shuttered streets of St. John’s to reach the hospital where Xavier lies unconscious. When a video of the attack surfaces, Jules struggles to make sense of what she sees in the footage — and of what she can’t quite make out. While Xavier’s story unfolds, so, too, do the stories that brought him there. Here, across families and generations, are stories of mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers; of children cared for, neglected, lost, and re-found; of selfless generosity and reluctant debt. Above all, Moore, in the inimitable largesse of her art, paints a shimmering portrait of the sacrifice, pain, and wild joy of loving. A tour de force of storytelling and craft, This Is How We Love brings us a cast of characters so rich and true they could only have been written by Lisa Moore.

The dream of an urban paradise comes true for the Raccoons of a small suburban city when they rise up, throw out their government, and create an ecological commonwealth. Touchwit, Clutch and Bandit are prepared to die for a free, healthy, and diverse city. But to earn their self-respect as citizens they must overcome their father Meatbreath, an autocrat obsessed with multiplying himself in a host of weaponised children. And to join a community of kinship they must find their future mates. Will the three cubs use the powers they have inherited from their father without being claimed by his evil? In this sometimes sentimental, sometimes heroic adventure story full of echoes of current issues and political personalities, Raccoons are the leading experts at survival, engaging the struggle for a better Earth with wonder, joy, and laughter.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The Brothers Grimm meet Black Mirror meets Alice in Wonderland. . . . In seven remixed fairy tales, Link delivers wit and dreamlike intrigue.”—Time “Thought-provoking and wonderfully told . . . so seamlessly entwines the real with the surreal that the stories threaten to slip into reality, resonating long after reading.”—BuzzFeed A new collection from one of today’s finest short story writers, MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble—featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Shaun TanFinding seeds of inspiration in the stories of the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers—characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.In “The White Cat’s Divorce,” an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which child will become his heir. In “The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear,” a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In “Skinder’s Veil,” a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers—or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.Twisting and turning in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable—these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the realm of short fiction.