Pain Science

Maiden of Pain is the fourth title in a new Forgotten Realms novel series focusing specifically on priests, the popular D&D game iconic class also known as clerics. Each title will chronicle priests loyal to a different deity in the Forgotten Realms pantheon. Like the preceding series The Rogues, each novel in The Priests series is written as a stand-alone adventure, allowing new listeners an easy entry point into the Forgotten Realms world.

Within the vast sprawl of Varangantua lies the Spoil. It is a broken crossroads, forsaken by the Lex, abandoned by the city’s uncaring masters, where the only choice is a slow death in the manufactories, or a quick one on the street. And it is in turmoil. Andreti Sorokin, the gangster king whose vicious rule brought order to the Spoil, is dead, slain in the most brutal fashion. Melita Voronova, skilled info-broker and reluctant agent of the imperious Valtteri cartel, is tasked with uncovering the mystery of who killed Sorokin.

Lazulai is a world beyond the brink, its battle against the tyranids all but lost. Once-magnificent cities lie in ruin. The seas boil. The skies crack. Horrific alien bioforms devour. In mere days the planet will be consumed.

My name is Lexie, and I raise the dead. Necromancy isn't all I can do. But that's for another time. It's my first week at the university, and an accident has sent our world spinning. A decision that should be years in the making now has to be made in mere days. The repercussions are big—not just for my life but for the guys' as well. Everyone will feel my choice. Everyone will have to live with it. What the hell do I do?

This collection of 22 short stories by the author of Daughter of Hounds and Alabaster firmly established Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of the preeminent voices in dark fantasy today. Through a cycle of interconnected narratives, Kiernan unflinchingly explores a surreal world where the fantastic and the mundane are never separated by more than the insubstantial thickness of a shadow.

At the heart of this history is the female body. The century-span between the crinoline and the bikini witnessed more mutations in the ideal western woman's body shape than at any other period. In this richly detailed account, Virginia Nicholson takes us to the Frontline of Beauty to reveal the power, the pain and the pleasure involved in adorning the female body. Encompassing two world wars and a revolution in women's rights, All the Rage tells the story of western female beauty from 1860 to 1960.

Of all the devout warriors in the Adepta Sororitas, none are as renowned or battle-hungry as those of the Order of Our Martyred Lady. Yet while others seek glory in their own martyrdom, Sister Helewise is determined to stay alive, so that her death might serve a greater purpose when the God-Emperor wills it. Assigned to Fleet Quintus of the Indomitus Crusade, Helewise and her sisters follow an ancient route of pilgrimage to rediscover and liberate the shrine world of Cion, once a sacred bastion of their order.

The Harriken have decided James Brownstone is an unacceptable dishonor to their clan. This time, Grandfather has hired the best assassins in the business, and Shay knows them. Shay won't allow Brownstone to go to Japan without backup. Her backup. Brownstone needs to decide what he will do with the wish, and how much is he going to tell Allison? The Harriken may have paid the piper, but James Brownstone is calling the dance.

In the fall of 2010, Abby Norman's strong dancer's body dropped 40 pounds, and gray hairs began to sprout from her temples. She was repeatedly hospitalized in excruciating pain, but the doctors insisted it was a urinary tract infection and sent her home with antibiotics.

Four months ago Millie left the Arcadia Project after losing her partner, Teo, to the lethal magic of an Unseelie fey countess. Now, in a final visit to the scene of the crime, Millie and her former boss, Caryl, encounter Teo's tormented ghost. But there's one problem: According to Caryl, ghosts don't exist. Millie has a new life, a stressful job, and no time to get pulled back into the Project, but she agrees to tell her side of the ghost story to the agents from the Project's National Headquarters.

In America, we teach that strength means holding back tears and shaming your own feelings. In the Black community, these pressures are especially poignant. Poor mental health outcomes-- including diagnoses of depression and anxiety, reliance on prescription drugs, and suicide–have skyrocketed in the past decade. In this book, actor Courtney B. Vance seeks to change this trajectory. Along with professional expertise from famed psychologist Dr. Robin L. Smith, Courtney B. Vance explores issues of grief, relationships, identity, and race through the telling of his own most formative experiences

Evil stirs in Briardark, an ancient forest that looms over the Shyishan village of Felstein, where whispers abound of the spectres and brutes that lurk amongst the trees. One man keeps these perils at bay—Samuel Helmgaart, the revered beasthunter of Felstein—but when tragedy strikes his family, an unknowable foe is unleashed, one that stalks the villagers and turns neighbour against neighbour. Soon, a witch hunt ensues, and in the midst of his own sorrow Samuel’s daughter, Cicely, struggles with grief that has twisted into something dark.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is known to be a condition in which people usually have hypermobile joints and stretchy skin. This is what physicians generally look for when they are considering EDS diagnoses. The truth is that EDS can present in many different ways. There are many different types and forms of EDS, and they affect very different parts of a person's body. A physician who looks for only two signs is missing the big picture of the family history and the patient's symptoms in relation to an EDS diagnosis.

This riveting audiobook takes the listener around the globe and through the centuries to discover how different cultures have sought to combat and treat physical pain. With colorful stories and sometimes frightening anecdotes, Dr. Thomas Dormandy describes a checkered progression of breakthroughs, haphazard experiments, ignorant attitudes, and surprising developments in human efforts to control pain.

In a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, 12 million opioid pain pills were distributed in just three years to a town with a population of 382 people. One woman, after losing her brother to overdose, was desperate for justice. Debbie Preece’s fight for accountability for her brother’s death took her well beyond the Sav-Rite Pharmacy in coal country, ultimately leading to three of the biggest drug wholesalers in the country. She was joined by a crusading lawyer and by local journalist Eric Eyre, who uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal.

Marina takes on a new ally in reckless Mike Colby (Space Truckers) and uses her valuable asset, Margot, to keep him in line. Her attitude about war and revenge changes when Mike and Margot are nearly killed while defeating an assassin who is part cyborg—an assassin whom she feared would one day face and be killed. Feeling guilt and loneliness, she changes from a lone avenger to a team leader who would sacrifice anything for her friends. It's time to end this war and salvage what's left of her lonely life.

As we open up to life and love and each other, as we awaken from our dream of separation, we encounter not just the bliss of existence, but its pain, too; not only life's ecstasy, but also its agony. Healing doesn't always feel good or comfortable or even "spiritual", for we are inevitably forced to confront our shadows, fears, and deepest longings - those secret parts of ourselves that we have denied, repressed, or deemed "negative" and unworthy of our love.

For more than 40 years, professionals in the field of disability studies have engaged in debates over the use of aversive interventions (such as electric shock) like the ones used at the Judge Rotenberg Center. This book is a historical case study of the Judge Rotenberg Center, named after the judge who ruled in favor of keeping its doors open to use aversive interventions.

Many people have either been told or read that fibromyalgia (FM) isn't real, or it is just all in their heads. This misunderstanding, unfortunately, causes harm and is a disservice to those suffering. If you are one of the estimated four million people in the United States who are suffering from FM, then you know it is real. You also will receive actionable steps you can take to thrive, not just survive with FM and its related disorders. You will also learn practical and realistic strategies for conquering your FM from Dr. Michael Lenz.

How can science teach us that animals feel no pain when our common sense observations tell us otherwise? Bernard Rollin offers welcome insight into questions like this in his ground-breaking account of the difficult and controversial issues surrounding the use of animals. He demonstrates that the denial of animal consciousness and animal suffering is not an essential feature of a scientific approach, but rather a contingent, historical aberration that can and must be changed if science is to be both coherent and morally responsible.