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Hoping to achieve a lifelong goal when he is called up to the major leagues after ten years in the minors, Edward Everett Yates makes a risky play that results in a devastating injury and is unable to pursue a life without baseball as the years progress.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird meets This Time Next Year in a sliding-doors style romance and coming-to-self story about fate, chance, and the choices we make. What if “meant to be” happened twice? Lucy is at a crossroads. The same night she quits her thankless job she meets Caleb, a local photographer in her seaside town, and has a run-in with Max—the once love of her life. As Lucy decides the right path forward—finally pursue her dream of becoming a writer, or move to London and revive her career—her choice will change her life in unimaginable ways. Stay. After a decade of trying to run from her dream, Lucy is finally facing her fears and putting pen to page. With her budding romance with handsome, artistic Caleb, she has more inspiration now than ever. But can Lucy and Caleb open themselves up after their past heartbreaks? And will their different paths take them to the same place? Go. Lucy can’t believe her luck when a room in her best friend’s London house share opens up and she lands a job at the prestigious Supernova. It gives her the courage to face Max, who’s serendipitous encounter still has her reeling, and ask what really happened almost a decade ago? But does she really want to know, when being together feels like fate? In concurrent storylines that track what would have happened if Lucy chose to Stay or Go, What Might Have Been is a sweeping story that poses the questions: is it destiny or chance that decides who we are meant to be, and who we are meant to love? And is there such a thing as a soul mate?
A dozen star historians on what might have happened at history's turning points if the dice had fallen differently. 'Stimulating, provocative and playful' Literary Review Throughout history, great and terrible events have often hinged upon luck. Andrew Roberts has asked a team of twelve leading historians and biographers what might have happened if major world events had gone differently? Each concentrating in the area in which they are a leading authority, historians as distinguished as Antonia Fraser (Gunpowder Plot), Norman Stone (Sarajevo 1914) and Anne Somerset (the Spanish Armada) consider: What if? Robert Cowley demonstrates how nearly Britain won the American war of independence. Following her acclaimed GEORGIANA, Amanda Foreman muses on Lincoln's Northern States of America and Lord Palmerston's Great Britain going to war, as they so nearly did in 1861. Whether it's Stalin fleeing Moscow in 1941 (Simon Sebag Montefiore), or Napoleon not being forced to retreat from it in 1812 (Adam Zamoyski), the events covered here are important, world-changing ones.
Inspired by the timeless quote by the great writer George Eliot, It's Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been is a guidebook to getting the life you've always wanted. Written in best-selling author BJ Gallagher's trademark warm and witty style, this book is written for, in her own words, "Everyone who has let fear or busyness or any reason good or bad get in the way of achieving your highest goals and long-held dreams, and isn't that everyone?" Whether you are a brand new college graduate going out into the big, wide world, a business executive escaping burnout, or a 40-something mom looking for a 'second life,' this book is a wonderful combination of great advice, step-by-step guidelines, and pure inspiration to listen to and honor your inner voice and seize not just the day, but the rest of your life!
How are we to distinguish between the essential and accidental properties of things such as individual people, cats, trees, and tables? Almost everyone agrees that such individuals could have been different, in certain respects, from the way that they actually are. But what are the respects in which they could not have been different: which of their properties are essential to their being the individuals that they are? And why? Following the revival of interest among analytic philosophers in essentialism and de re modality generated by the work of Kripke and others in the 1970s, these questions have been the subject of intense, yet still unresolved, debate. In this book, Penelope Mackie challenges most of the answers that have been given to these questions. Via a critical examination of rival theories, she arrives at what she calls 'minimalist essentialism', an unorthodox theory according to which ordinary individuals have relatively few interesting essential properties, and intuitions that appear to support stronger versions of essentialism are interpreted as consistent with the theory. The topics discussed include the rivalry between the interpretation of de re modality in terms of 'identity across possible worlds' and its interpretation in terms of David Lewis's counterpart theory, some notorious modal puzzles generated by the theory that individuals exist with different properties in different possible worlds, the notion of an individual essence, Kripke's 'necessity of origin' thesis, and the widely held view that there are sortal properties that are essential properties of the things to which they belong. The book also includes a discussion of the relation between essentialism about individuals and essentialism about natural kinds, and a critical examination of the connection between semantics and natural kind essentialism.
Within a few short years, research on counterfactual thinking has mushroomed, establishing itself as one of the signature domains within social psychology. Counterfactuals are thoughts of what might have been, of possible past outcomes that could have taken place. Counterfactuals and their implications for perceptions of time and causality have long fascinated philosophers, but only recently have social psychologists made them the focus of empirical inquiry. Following the publication of Kahneman and Tversky's seminal 1982 paper, a burgeoning literature has implicated counterfactual thinking in such diverse judgments as causation, blame, prediction, and suspicion; in such emotional experiences as regret, elation, disappointment and sympathy; and also in achievement, coping, and intergroup bias. But how do such thoughts come about? What are the mechanisms underlying their operation? How do their consequences benefit, or harm, the individual? When is their generation spontaneous and when is it strategic? This volume explores these and other numerous issues by assembling contributions from the most active researchers in this rapidly expanding subfield of social psychology. Each chapter provides an in-depth exploration of a particular conceptual facet of counterfactual thinking, reviewing previous work, describing ongoing, cutting-edge research, and offering novel theoretical analysis and synthesis. As the first edited volume to bring together the many threads of research and theory on counterfactual thinking, this book promises to be a source of insight and inspiration for years to come.
What if Christianity is simple? When Jesus gave his first public address, he said, I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets and to set the captives free. When a contract is fulfilled, it is completed and is no longer in effect. Religion is a form of bondage that enslaves its adherents to a set of rules that constitute sin. It portrays the image of a God who acts as a judge. In one hand he has a legal pad and pen and in the other a club. When sufficient sins have been committed, the club is used on the sinner. Jesus died on the cross to fulfill the need for justice and came to earth to show that God is not the ogre with a club but a loving father with outstretched arms wanting to hug his children He sent to us the Holy Spirit so we might have the heart and mind of Christ and be empowered to live a life free from the bondage of sin and religion. This book shows the reader how to do that and points out the stumbling blocks that may interfere. It enables the reader to see the simplicity of Christianity and understand why it should surpass religion in our lives.
What if Lee had avoided defeat at Gettysburg? In the right hands the ``what if'' question can give us unusual access to the fascinations of history.
"Historians and philosophers alike have pondered the crucial turning points of history--the events that forever altered the course of civilization and set the stage for the world in which we live today. In these essays, some of the most respected minds of our time as the question "What if...": Pontius Pilate hadn't ordered Jesus Christ's crucifixion? Abraham Lincoln hadn't abolished slavery? A Confederate aide hadn't accidentally lost General Robert E. Lee's plans for invading the North? The Allied invasion of D Day had failed? Pope Pius XII had spoken out against the Holocaust? The Mongols had succeeded in conquering Europe?"--Back cover.
"My Durham kindergarten burnt to the ground by the fires of racism. Selfishness scorched the state title hopes of our '83 team. My childhood charred by alcoholism. But all three rose from the ashes." DURHAM A southern city undergoes a painful transformation during the early days of integration. SOUTHERN HIGH An all-time great team in North Carolina pursues the school's first state football title. ONE YOUNG MAN An unlikely member of a star-studded team battles against all odds to fulfill his dreams. IT'S ALWAYS TOO EARLY TO GIVE UP! Growing up, Tony Bazen never traveled outside a four-hour radius of his hometown of Durham, North Carolina. As an adult, his life journey has taken him literally all over the world, and at last count, Tony had visited much of the United States as well as 25 countries. He currently resides in Beijing, China where he is a Principal at an international school. Although he has loved seeing many of the world's leading cities, Durham still has his heart and will always be home. Tony has lived a full life, including time as a teacher, coach, youth director, sportswriter, feature writer for a national magazine, songwriter, and school administrator. The one personal goal that was never fulfilled was that of a high school state football championship, and he still often remembers the night when that dream ended.
