“We are going to help him die Cassie,” Shantavi told me that afternoon, over steaming cups of soy milk latte, as casually as if announcing a gardening project.
Cassie was an international student at Harvard, the most prestigious university in the world. She was shy and observant, yet underneath her quiet disposition was a desire to experience the world to the fullest, beyond her traditional boundaries and limitations.
One fateful night at the university campus, a free-spirited, daredevil student from the extension school named Shantavi came into her life and they became fast friends over the next four years.
In the spring semester of Cassie’s senior year, Shantavi disclosed to her that she was looking for a partner-in-crime to consort with a wealthy elderly benefactor who planned to kill himself in a year’s time. In exchange for companionship and assistance in the suicide process, they would inherit all his assets and properties after his death.
Thus began the premise for a thrillingly seductive spiral down a rabbit hole over the spring break in Florida, where Cassie inevitably had to cross a point of no return.
Radical Islam is an enduring global challenge that presents a national and international security threat. Instigation by hate preachers, inadequate government, societal attention, religious and reciprocal radicalization have allowed this threat to manifest into terrorist violence. Extremist ideologies have infiltrated religious, educational, and digital spaces and thus, terrorism’s shadow continues to shroud the safety and stability of countries and communities worldwide today.
On 21 April 2019, the world’s most dangerous threat movement, the Islamic State, mounted one of its deadliest attacks in Sri Lanka. The surge of fear, suspicion, and prejudice following what is now known as ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre’ fragmented the country, imbuing hatred and anger against the Muslim community. Years later, the radicalization pipeline remains intact, and the threat persists. With the global expansion of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, will the world witness attacks of a similar or greater scale in the future?
Equal parts treatise and reference material, Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre: Lessons for the International Community answers this question by tracing the genesis, threat trajectory, and aftermath of the bombings and the personalities behind them. With unprecedented access to accounts from Islamic State detainees, affected families, intelligence specialists, and investigators, the book reflects on lessons learned and provides insight into how such attacks are organized and what measures can be taken to prevent or respond to these threats effectively.
Phoebe Wong would do anything to escape a British winter. But it may cost her more than her airfare.
Sunsets, tacos and margaritas all sound perfect to exhausted forty-three-year-old single mum Phoebe with a dead-end job in Southwark. When her long distance boyfriend in New York invites her to meet him in Florida, she couldn’t wait to jump on a plane with her toddler. Arriving with her teething child at her boyfriend’s Key West ‘vacay home’ before him, she is robbed on her first night. With no money, cards or passports, she is grateful for the support of friendly locals. At a BBQ, she meets an old expat British businessman. Her boyfriend arrives eventually, apologetic, and takes her out to a posh seafood dinner. But when the British expat is shot that night in the same restaurant’s car park, Phoebe is trapped in a put-up job, and her boyfriend’s delayed arrival is suspiciously timed. If this place has turned darker and chillier than London, she wants out.
Will she be able to pull herself and her daughter away from danger?
The unique Chinese-style illustrations will engage children and the stories will instill wise oriental philosophies of life such as diligence, courage and kindness.
The books were written and illustrated by award-winning authors and artists. The team has won awards such as Feng Zikai Chinese Childen’s Picture Book Award, Hsin Yi Picture Book Award, Bingxin Children’s Literature Award and Hong Kong Youth Literary Awards. The series was reviewed by consultant Dr Wang Jing, a professor of children’s literature at Shanghai Normal University and a student of renowned Chinese children’s literature Mei Zihan.
On the third day of the lunar new year, adults will always tell their children to go to bed early. They believe that on the evening of this day, the mouse’s daughter is going to get married. Read on to find out why!
The unique Chinese-style illustrations will engage children and the stories will instill wise oriental philosophies of life such as diligence, courage and kindness. The books were written and illustrated by award-winning authors and artists. The team has won awards such as Feng Zikai Chinese Childen’s Picture Book Award, Hsin Yi Picture Book Award, Bingxin Children’s Literature Award and Hong Kong Youth Literary Awards. The series was reviewed by consultant Dr Wang Jing, a professor of children’s literature at Shanghai Normal University and a student of renowned Chinese children’s literature Mei Zihan.
Lady Meng Jiangnu is an important Chinese tale about devotion and love. Lady Meng Jiangnu’s husband was pressed into service and sent as labourer to build the Great Wall of China. He died while building the Wall and upon hearing this news, Lady Meng Jiangnu wept so bitterly that a part of the Great Wall collapsed. Her pain brought to fore the atrocities of the unkind ruler.
The unique Chinese-style illustrations will engage children and the stories will instill wise oriental philosophies of life such as diligence, courage and kindness. The books were written and illustrated by award-winning authors and artists. The team has won awards such as Feng Zikai Chinese Childen’s Picture Book Award, Hsin Yi Picture Book Award, Bingxin Children’s Literature Award and Hong Kong Youth Literary Awards. The series was reviewed by consultant Dr Wang Jing, a professor of children’s literature at Shanghai Normal University and a student of renowned Chinese children’s literature Mei Zihan.
Hua Mulan’s extraordinary act of disguising herself as a man to contribute to the fight against the enemy is a story that would be told for many centuries to come.
In modern-day China, a man has travelled to Shanghai on impulse to meet his online lover Luna, but she refuses to see him and soon disappears without a trace. He tries to forget her by immersing himself in dating apps, and also learns to appreciate the nuances within everyday Chinese life while he adjusts himself to mainland China as a member of the greater overseas Chinese diaspora. As the seasons change he falls in love with a budding photographer named Sofia, but with traces of Luna constantly reappearing in his life, will he ever find a way out of his unquiet predicament?
Unquiet Heart Soliloquy is Dano Chow’s debut novel, a confessional account of one’s turning to dating apps for comfort in times of loneliness, in the hope that one casual outing after another will somehow be enough to fulfil a generational desire for intimacy.
The world needs leaders who have the strength to be kind. The Return on Kindness challenges companies to set a higher bar and reimagine what great leadership looks like. Kindness isn’t what you think it is. Kind leaders, far from being soft or weak, are caring and tough.
The Return on Kindness makes a compelling, evidence-based case for why kind leadership is good for business and how kind leaders create value through prioritizing the mental health and wellbeing of their people. Bonnie Hayden Cheng, organizational psychologist, researcher, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies, combines extensive research, storytelling, and in-depth interviews with influential executives across a wide range of industries to reveal the transformative power of kindness in driving business success.
The Return on Kindness provides a simple but impactful RISE framework to inspire kind leadership, accompanied by practical touchpoints for successfully implementing kind leadership in organizations.
