This poignant coming-of-age tale is told from the point of view of the precocious Beth Levy, the youngest in a household of two generations of strong Jewish women in post-World War II Winnipeg.

Fractions of seconds can do lots of damage. One decision can ruin lives. A blink can be tragic. And loving a Hollister…can hurt like hell. I would know. They say the average person can hold their breath under water for two full minutes when pushed to the extremes. Will Hollister has been holding his for years. The oldest of two elite swimming brothers, Will was always a dominant force in the water. But in life, he preferred to let his younger brother Evan be the one to shine. Evan got the girl, and Will…he got to bury all of the secrets. A brother’s burden, the weight of it all nearly left him to drown. The daughter of two Olympians, my path was set the day my fingertips first touched water. My future was as crystal clear as the lane I dominated in the pool—swim hard, win big, love a Hollister. My life with Evan burned bright. He gave me arms to come home to, and a smile that fooled the world into believing everything was perfect. But it was Will who pushed me. Will…who really knew me. And when all of the pieces fell, it was Will who started to pick them up. In the end, the only thing that matters are those few precious seconds—and what we decide to do while we still have them in our grasp.

In this book, Ace Moloi writes a letter to his deceased mother. This book, this letter, is an important and necessary look at the state of our country twenty-one years into our democracy. It is the story of constantly holding your breath, hoping nothing else goes wrong. In a searing and beautiful narrative, Moloi manages to take the reader through various South African issues like the trials of child-headed families in South Africa, the volatile issue of service delivery in townships, the story of broken families, why fees must fall, and racial division in universities. Funny in parts and tragic in others, this is the ultimate South African story.

A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR “A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

Sharp as broken glass, smooth as a polished skull, dark as the other side of the moon -- this is the art of Brian Ewing, one of the leading-edge visual voices of graphic pop surrealism and the exploding rock-poster scene. Don't Hold Your Breath is the first collection of Ewing's stunning catalog, featuring posters, illustrations, and album covers for Bad Religion, Queens of the Stone Age, Metallica, Detective Comics, My Chemical Romance, The Bouncing Souls, Brand New, The Melvins, Warped Tour, The New Yorker, High on Fire, The Strokes, Fall Out Boy, and many more. Plus original art prints, skate decks, shirt designs, zombie masks, and skulls, skulls, skulls! Foreword by Kevin Lyman, creator of the Warped Tour.

Because we live in Europe. Because nothing really bad happens. The worst is a bit of an inconvenience. Perhaps not such a good mini break. But really in the grand scheme of life, not so bad. Starting with a seemingly innocent one night stand, this dark, witty and magical play by Zinnie Harris dives into our recent European history. An epic look at the true cost of principles and how we live now, How to Hold Your Breath premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in February 2015.