A crisp, passionately argued answer to the question that everyone who's grown dependent on digital devices is asking: "Where's the rest of my life?"At a time when we're all trying to make sense of our relentlessly connected lives, this revelatory book presents a bold new approach to the digital age. Part intellectual journey, part memoir, Hamlet's BlackBerry sets out to solve what William Powers calls the conundrum of connectedness. Our computers and mobile devices do wond...

The way lawyers think about the law can seem deeply mysterious. They see nuance and meaning in statutes and implications in judicial opinions that are opaque to the rest of us. Accessible and thought provoking, Sharpening the Legal Mind explains how lawyers analyze the cases and controversies that come before the courts.Written by William Powers Jr., the former president of the University of Texas at Austin, this book is an authoritative introduction to the academic study ...

Many fantasize about dramatically changing their lives — living in accordance with their ideals rather than the exigencies of job, bills, and possessions. William Powers actually does it. In his book Twelve by Twelve, Powers lived in an off-grid tiny house in rural North Carolina. In New Slow City, he and his wife, Melissa, inhabited a Manhattan micro-apartment in search of slow in the fastest city in the world. Here, the couple, with baby in tow, search for balance, comm...

Burned-out after years of doing development work around the world, William Powers spent a season in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North Carolina, as recounted in his award-winning memoir Twelve by Twelve. Could he live a similarly minimalist life in the heart of New York City? To find out, Powers and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and moved into a 350-square-foot micro-apartment” in Greenwich Village. Dow...

Half of the story is set in Good Samaritan House, a soup kitchen in Manhattan where Dom Gregory goes on a sabbatical to experience firsthand how the unexpected windfall the monks received might be used--this is a radical departure from his quiet monastic life of the past 20-plus years. After struggling with what to do with the inheritance, the abbot holds a meeting of the monks that fails to find a consensus on what to do with the $25 million, so Dom Gregory meets with Jerome Cardinal Mazu...

Ripple: An Intimate Exchange of Urgency and Hope Between An Ecologist and His Daughter is a narrative of letters written by an ecologist dad to his daughter upon her coming-of-age. Drawing upon his personal history, family anecdotes, and shared memories, Powers envisions a path for humanity's reintegration with nature, and a chance to save the life force that runs through all of us. A story of separation has long gripped the human race: that people are separate—with more advanced ...

The Kindness is the story of Garrett Penquite, a professional business consultant who helps floundering companies avoid bankruptcy by analyzing their finances, assets and staffing. He then helps in the difficult task of implementing the recommended changes and getting his client back on solid footing.When malicious accusations threaten his own business, Garrett strongly suspects an acquaintance of making the claims. After a lengthy investigation all charges are dropped without him ...

Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay a...

Riverboats and Roses is set in the late 1800s in a Mississippi river town.Martha Fairbanks must face the death of her beloved husband of twenty-four years. Riverboat Captain Anderson Fairbanks has been killed in an accident leaving Martha and her grown son Charles to grieve the loss of their husband and father. However, Martha has one additional burden, a secret so painful she dare not share it with anyone but a secret so heartrending that her soul could not abide it alone....

Many fantasize about dramatically changing their lives — living in accordance with their ideals rather than the exigencies of job, bills, and possessions. William Powers actually does it. In his book Twelve by Twelve, Powers lived in an off-grid tiny house in rural North Carolina. In New Slow City, he and his wife, Melissa, inhabited a Manhattan micro-apartment in search of slow in the fastest city in the world. Here, the couple, with baby in tow, search for balance, comm...

Burned-out after years of doing development work around the world, William Powers spent a season in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North Carolina, as recounted in his award-winning memoir Twelve by Twelve. Could he live a similarly minimalist life in the heart of New York City? To find out, Powers and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and moved into a 350-square-foot "micro-apartment" in Greenwich Village. Dow...

The Long Journey Home takes place in the American mid-west during the late 1880s.Ben Owens, a young man in his late teens had a devastating argument with his father and left home, traveling west to become a cowboy. He writes to his mother who patiently encourages both father and son to reconcile, but pride and stubbornness thwart her wishes. After five years Ben must face his uncertainties when his mother falls ill and asks him to return home to see her.This memorable story...