Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans survive heart attacks. The journey back to a normal life is not always easy. In THE SILENT HEART, author Larry J. Matthews provides a road map of the physical and emotional obstacles encountered on his personal journey through the ten months following his heart attack and cardiac arrest.

In this memoir, Matthews offers an intimate look into the mind of a heart attack survivor, sharing the events and his thoughts and feelings after his heart stopped beating. Combining personal experience with medical facts and reflections from his family, THE SILENT HEART shows the realities of heart disease, heart attacks, and rehabilitation as they affect not only the patient, but loved ones as well.

THE SILENT HEART gives hope and encouragement to those facing the same hurdles in their lives by presenting firsthand insight into one man's personal experience, the road to recovery, and the goal of practicing heart-healthy living.

Until the age of four, Irene Snow lived happily with her mother and gentle, doting grandparents. The return of her father, a rough and tough soldier, at the close of World War II set the stage for rebellion and dissention in her young life. He was a strict disciplinarian, and she resented his authority from the outset. What's more his arrival introduced her to the baser emotions of jealousy and hatred, which were previously beyond her ken as the reigning princess in Grandma's house.

As she grew older, her life became a search to regain the pedestal she lost, no matter what it took. As a young woman, she fell in love with a married German and had his child out of wedlock. Aware of her father's deep and abiding enmity for "the enemy," she reveled in his displeasure; he in turn vowed to disown his grandchild. Irene's seven-year love affair ended with her marriage to a Canadian widower, but her wedding was closely followed by a tragedy that ignited her darker emotions and eventually brought her to a nervous breakdown, psychosis, and utter darkness.

She turned to the field of psychology in the hope it might shed light on her self-defeating behavior. While her studies provided many answers, they did not lead to peace. Finally, she embarked upon a spiritual journey that led her to "A Course in Miracles." Once she began to reach out with love, her life changed dramatically.

"What Bodanis does brilliantly is to give us a feel for Einstein as a person. I don't think I've ever read a book that does this as well . . . Whenever there's a chance for storytelling, Bodanis triumphs." --Popular Science "Fascinating." --Forbes Widely considered the greatest genius of all time, Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos with his general theory of relativity and helped lead us into the atomic age. Yet in the final decades of his life, he was ignored by most working scientists, and his ideas were opposed by even his closest friends. How did this happen? Best-selling biographer David Bodanis traces the arc of Einstein's life--from the skeptical, erratic student to the world's most brilliant physicist to the fallen-from-grace celebrity. An intimate biography in which "theories of the universe morph into theories of life" (Times, London), Einstein's Greatest Mistake reveals what we owe Einstein today--and how much more he might have achieved if not for his all-too-human flaws.

The surgeons' heads seemed small next to the huge dome-shaped lights. Together heads and lights zoomed in on this sick heart, which looked like a wiggly red ball of flesh. Gloved fingers felt and searched for new possibilities.

All of a sudden there was an undeniable knowing that someday I would be a member of such a team and stand at the head of the patient to guard his or her life...

Bold and brilliant, "Behind the Ether Screen" shares the true story of Gabriele F. Roden, a woman whose attempt to break free from a childhood of relentless expectations of performance and perfection, instead ended up choosing a career with similar challenges that resulted in great successes.

Born in post-war Germany, Roden was raised with rigorous discipline and motivation to choose a career based on humanitarian principles that would outlast the demolished, chaotic surroundings of her home. But it was a pivotal move to Ireland in her teens and her enrollment at University College Cork that launched her career in medicine.

Her early drive to excel in the specialty of anesthesiology brought her to the United States of America as a young graduate. She completed her internship in Worcester, MA, pursued her anesthesia residency at Yale University, and after a few years in private practice at a community hospital, she returned to academic medicine in Boston.

Spanning a career of more than thirty-seven years, Dr. Roden's moving account offers insight into the behind-the-scenes struggles and rewards of her specialty.

My caregiver training started early in life, extended through the 44 years after Eileen was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis, and did not end until her death in 2001. At home, I provided full care to her, planned and thought ahead, but always was willing to sacrifice my personal freedom, and to suffer frequent heartbreak. As a caregiver I received a lifetime of gratitude from Eileen, to give me satisfaction of having successfully met her daily MS demands. The early training I received in childhood coincided with the years of the Great Depression, from the late 1920's, through the 1930's, and the first years of the 1940's. During that time I had the least possible financial assistance from anybody, yet I became an unpaid electrician, plumber, carpenter, auto repairer...a Mr. Fixit for the entire Fenley family. The four years I served in the US Army were very pleasant, advancing from private to major, in an endless procession of challenging but interesting extra duties, in addition to my regular ones. These I describe as my lucky Army breaks. I have bared my soul. Happy reading

For all who have found the Bible difficult to read and science hard to understand, this author did too Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone would take the time to study things such as difficult verses? Also, would it be helpful if somebody wrote it in a book?
Have we really found real truth to Noah's flood? Does anyone know the physics that could cause such a global occurrence? Someone has now researched for most of a lifetime, plus three extra years of intensive study.
The answers are not always easy, the solutions not always simple. Modern Science finds more evidence almost daily that there once was a flood of such proportions.
Author, Harris F. Allen has spent countless hours attempting to answer his own questions. He has a few tools including much science and Bible in his college studies. Always an active overachiever, Allen has become deaf and partially disabled. That left far more time and greater opportunity than he could ever imagine.
Having a history of regular church attendance from his early youth, the author received a reasonable background, but always had some unanswered questions. So, in pharmacy school in a Baptist college, he excelled in New and Old Testament studies. Chemistry and science of various sorts were the main topics of study, and by adding Bible, that is an ideal mix for this discussion.
Allen will present his findings from both a scientific view and a Biblical understanding. He will explain what he found about difficult verses and some parts of the Bible that seem at times to be in conflict.
He will also discuss the physics, biochemistry and other dynamics that could be involved in such a worldwide flood. Regardless of science or Biblical belief, the flood did occur at about the time the Bible said it did.

This new scientific biography explores the influences on, and of, Galileo's exceptional work, thereby revealing novel connections with the worldviews of his age and beyond. Galileo Galilei's contribution to science is unquestionable. And his conflict with the church establishment of his time is no less famous. In this book, authored by a physicist and history scholar, Galileo's life and work are described against a backdrop of the prior scientific state of the art in his various fields of achievement. Particular emphasis is placed on Galileo's vision of the world in relation to historic and also future cosmological models. The impact of his discoveries and theories for the later development of physics and astronomy is a further focus of the narrative.

Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the "Baltimore "Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer--brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti--blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this bookis the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it."

"From the Hardcover edition.

This biography traces the life and work of Mary Fairfax Somerville, whose extraordinary mathematical talent only came to light through fortuitous circumstances. Barely taught to read and write as a child, all the science she learned and mastered was self taught. In this delightful narrative the author takes up the challenge of discovering how Somerville came to be one of the most outstanding British women scientists and, furthermore, a popular writer. Particular attention is paid to the gender aspects of Somerville's success in what was, to put it mildly, a predominantly male domain.

The personal diaries of one of America's best-loved naturalists, revealing his difficult and inspiring path to finding his voice and becoming a writer Few writers are as renowned for their eloquence about the natural world, its power and fragility, as Sigurd F. Olson (1899-1982). Before he could give expression to The Singing Wilderness, however, he had to find his own voice. It is this struggle, the painstaking and often simply painful process of becoming the writer and conservationist now familiar to us, that Olson documented in the journal entries gathered here. Written mostly during the years from 1930 to 1941, Olson's journals describe the dreams and frustrations of an aspiring writer honing his skills, pursuing recognition, and facing doubt while following the academic career that allowed him to live and work even as it consumed so much of his time. But even as he speaks with immediacy and intensity about the conditions of his apprenticeship, Olson can be seen developing the singular way of observing and depicting the natural world that would bring him fame-and also, more significantly, alert others to the urgent need to understand and protect that world. Author of Olson's definitive biography, editor David Backes brings a deep knowledge of the writer to these journals, providing critical context, commentary, and insights along the way. When Olson wrote, in the spring of 1941, "What I am afraid of now is that the world will blow up just as I am getting it organized to suit me," he could hardly have known how right he would prove to be. It is propitious that at our present moment, when the world seems once more balanced on the precipice, we have the words of Sigurd F. Olson to remind us of what matters-and of the hard work and the wonder that such a reckoning requires.

Who would ever believe that absentminded Nobel laureate professor Albert Einstein was a Soviet spy?Albert Einstein's political and humanitarian commitment was almost completely obscured from his popular image by the media since they portrayed him as a weird mathematical genius. J. Edgar Hoover obsessively accumulated 'derogatory information" on Albert Einstein since January 1933, the date of his arrival in California. But it was not until the beginning of the fifties that he set his international trap to 'get Einstein."

Dr. Giampiero Favato delves into this chilling story with his controversial historical narrative, "Einstein@Berlin." He attempts to answer numerous questions, including the following:

• Who was behind the public defaming of Einstein's humanitarian reputation?
• Why did Hoover wait for almost twenty years before challenging Einstein's loyalty to the United States?
• Were Einstein's alleged pro-Communist activities a real threat to the national security of the United States or a simple pretext to take him down as a Communist in front of the nation?Controversial and intriguing, "Einstein@Berlin" propels you to confront a truth long hidden in the shadows.

Sophie Moen suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis and was in a wheelchair for ten years. Desperately seeking a solution, she called upon Dr. Ernie Pellegrino, who suggested joint replacement. After several surgeries, Sophie was able to walk again. This is just one of the medical success stories that author Ernie Pellegrino experienced in more than three decades of medical service. Narrated in a memoir format, "A Doctor's Path" includes emotionally touching examples of the selfless dedication a number of physicians demonstrate to patients. It marvels at patients who have endured incredible disabilities and their willingness to take the risks needed to improve their lives. Not all medical stories, however, have happy endings. Pellegrino gives rare insight into the people and events in his profession. His frank approach exposes some of the shameful individuals and activities that take place in patient care. He's not afraid to confront those he believes have violated the Hippocratic Oath-to practice medicine to the best of their ability and do no harm. Providing fourteen lessons, "A Doctor's Path" helps us understand the limitations of doctors and the medical practice, and demonstrates the will of doctors to nurture and serve humanity.