Best Selling Books by Milena

The book is an entirely new introduction to Latin prose composition. It is of interest and use to anyone already acquainted with the fundamentals of Latin.

Do you often feel like your brain is a browser with too many tabs open, each one demanding attention? That constant sense of mental clutter, where even small tasks feel monumental, is what we call everyday overwhelm. In From Frazzled to Focused, Milena Kovac Ashford offers a gentle, evidence-informed path back to clarity and calm. This is not a productivity system demanding more from you—it is an invitation to do less with more presence. Drawing on widely accepted neuroscience and practical psychology, the book explores why our brains get stuck in overload and how we can skillfully reset. You will learn to recognize early signs of overwhelm, quiet the inner critic, and build simple routines that protect your focus. Through compassionate exercises and relatable examples, you will discover how to slow down without guilt, set boundaries that stick, and reclaim your ability to concentrate on what matters. Whether you are navigating a demanding career, family responsibilities, or the noise of modern life, this book offers a trustworthy compass. Part of The Sagewell Wellness Library.

You check your phone over a hundred times a day. You feel the pull of notifications, the low hum of digital chatter, the nagging sense that your attention is no longer your own. *Unplug* is not about rejecting technology—it’s about choosing when and how to engage. Drawing on decades of research reviewed by major health organizations, this book shows how small shifts in awareness can break the cycle of constant distraction. You’ll learn to recognize the triggers that pull you into endless scrolling, cultivate micro-moments of focus, and rebuild your capacity for deep presence. With practical exercises for mornings, work, and relationships, you’ll discover that mindfulness is not another task to add to your list—it’s a way of uncluttering your mind. The result: less anxiety, better sleep, stronger connections, and a life that feels spacious rather than fragmented. No gimmicks. No guilt. Just a gentle, science-based path to taking back your time. Part of The Sagewell Wellness Library.

What if you could significantly improve your physical and mental health by taking a simple step thats easy, rewarding, and fun? Dr. Milena Penkowa says you can do that and more by owning a dog and yet people continue to invest time and money in costly treatments before even considering a furry friend. Dogs can stave off diseases and certain cancers, erase pain, and ease anxiety, depression, allergies, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders. Over the long term, they can also reduce the burden of dementia, epilepsy, stroke, Parkinsons disease, schizophrenia and autism. This guidebook explains the scientifically proven benefits of dogs, and youll learn how dogs: change the human brain so it reacts and thinks differently; improve the immune system to make you more resilient than dog deprived individuals; boost and invigorate the human spirit and secure happiness; promote a life of longevity and healthiness. Stop looking for fancy remedies to physical and mental problems, and start looking for a dog wagging its tail. Tap into a natural method to survive and thrive by learning about the fascinating connections between Dogs & Human Health.

"Powerful . . . The vivid descriptions of the Sardinian landscape are a fitting complement to the heroine''s conflicted heart" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review). As this compelling novel opens, a young unnamed woman reflects on the life of her bewitching, eccentric, and fiercely emotional grandmother, whose abiding search for love spans much of the twentieth century. In 1943, as American bombs fall on the city of Cagliari, she is thirty and considered an old maid, still living at home with her parents. But when the bombing ceases, and despite her protests, her father forces her to marry the first man to propose, an older widower she doesn''t love. After suffering several miscarriages, she is sent for treatment at a spa on the mainland, where she falls in love with an injured Italian army veteran. Back home, she gives birth to a son. She never reveals the affair to her husband—but decades later, she returns to the mainland and travels to her former lover''s hometown of Milan. Dressed in her finest coat and shoes, she wanders the streets in search of the elusive veteran . . . Set against a backdrop of rugged mountains and Italian villages lost in time, this international bestselling novel is a multigenerational family saga about love, lust, and country. "Agus''s descriptions of the everyday are as beautiful and haunting as her portrayal of life''s most dramatic episodes. Add an unexpected ending and the result is a graceful, powerful book." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Probe[s] deeply below the surfaces of familiar Japanese stereotypes . . . A compassionate and insightful story of dysfunction, despair and friendship" (Ruth Ozeki, award-winning author of A Tale for the Time Being). Twenty-year-old Taguchi Hiro has spent the last two years of his life living as a hikikomori—a shut-in who never leaves his room and has no human interaction—in his parents'' home in Tokyo. As Hiro tentatively decides to reenter the world, he spends his days observing life around him from a park bench. Gradually, he makes friends with Ohara Tetsu, a middle-aged salaryman who has lost his job but can''t bring himself to tell his wife, who shows up every day in a suit and tie to pass the time on a nearby bench. As Hiro and Tetsu cautiously open up to each other, they discover in their sadness a common bond. Regrets and disappointments, as well as hopes and dreams, come to the surface until both find the strength to somehow give a new start to their lives. This beautiful novel is moving, unforgettable, and full of surprises. The reader turns the last page feeling that a small triumph has occurred. "The best of the best from this year''s bountiful harvest of uncommonly strange offerings . . . Deeply original." — O, The Oprah Magazine "Exceptional . . . In today''s less-than-brave new world in which sincere human interaction is disappearing even as the numbers of so-called ''friends'' are multiplying, Necktie is a piercing reminder to acknowledge, nurture, and share our humanity." — BookDragon "The quiet reflection of this jewel of a novel is revelatory, redemptive and hypnotic until the last word." — Kirkus Reviews

This book is a collective journal of the COVID-19 pandemic. With first-hand accounts of the pandemic as it unfolded, it explores the social and the political through the lens of the outbreak. Featuring contributors located in India, the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Bulgaria, the book presents us with simultaneous multiple histories of our time. The volume documents the beginning of social distancing and lockdown measures adopted by countries around the world and analyses how these bore upon prevailing social conditions in specific locations. It presents the authors’ personal observations in a lucid conversational style as they reflect on themes such as the reorganization of political debates and issues, the experience of the marginalized, theodicy, government policy responses, and shifts into digital space under lockdown, all of these under an overarching narrative of the healthcare and economic crisis facing the world. A unique and engaging contribution, this book will be useful to students and researchers of sociology, public health, political economy, public policy, and comparative politics. It will also appeal to general readers interested in pandemic literature.

An irresistible, vivid, and wise story of one woman''s reckoning with loss and love Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shaken by the unexpected death of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realizes that she has no idea what her future will look like. To ease her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery. Leaving Barcelona behind, she returns to Cadaqués, on the coast, accompanied by her two sons, two ex-husbands, and two best friends, and makes a plan to meet her married lover for a few stolen moments as well. Surrounded by those she loves most, she spends the summer in an impossibly beautiful place, finding ways to reconnect and understand what it means to truly, happily live on her own terms, just as her mother would have wanted. A refreshingly frank and ruefully funny portrait of a grieving daughter, THIS TOO SHALL PASS explores how our deepest relationships are changed by tragedy, with bonds often becoming stronger in ways we never expected.

Putting a Witcher twist on family life, this delightful collection of comics features Geralt of Rivia as your average monster-slaying dad, trying to raise young Ciri to be a good kid while teaching her all about life as a witcher—a perfect gift for parents and The Witcher fans of all ages. Young Ciri''s extensive training at Kaer Morhen, the witchers'' stronghold, includes everything she needs to learn to survive the many threats in her world . . . as well as all the antics and fun of a little girl bonding with her adoptive dad and family. With help from Geralt and Ciri''s closest companions—including the motherly magic of Yennefer of Vengerberg and the wisdom of uncle Vesemir—these adorable tales of a non-traditional family will make you laugh, make you sigh, and make you realize that raising a Little Witcher is not that different from raising any other kid. Sure, bedtime stories might include warnings of monsters who fart when surprised, and Geralt might invoke the Witcher Code to get Ciri to brush her teeth or clean her room, but even the formidable White Wolf knows to surrender when it comes to bedtime battles or Afternoon Tea with the toys. The Little Witcher is perfect for: The Witcher fans raising little Ciris of their own Readers who believe in the power of chosen families Baby showers (don’t forget Dad!) Father’s Day or Mother’s Day gifts Players looking for a light-hearted twist on their favorite game Families who like cute, magical comics The Witcher fans looking to spend more time in Kaer Morhen

This study analyzes the social significance of prefaces with reference to Bulgarian editions of American literature published between 1948 and 1998. Such prefaces present a diverse body of texts, in different voices, involving numerous actors in the cultural sphere. These raise a range of interesting questions. How do prefaces in Bulgaria structure American literary and cultural studies? What ideological dimensions are found in them through the communist period and immediately afterwards? How are questions about “race” mediated? What do they indicate about Bulgaria’s relations to the USA, the former USSR and other European countries? How aware are American Studies scholars of the underlying presumptions of their professional field? These and other important questions are carefully considered in this book, while exploring a large body of fascinating source material which has received little systematic attention so far.

This book navigates the complexities of local real estate taxation in the dynamic region of Central and Eastern Europe, providing a meticulous analysis of the diverse approaches taken across the region. From Poland to Hungary, Romania to the Czech Republic, this book explores the historical roots and evolution of local real estate tax, its importance in municipal fiscal policy and its impact on communities. This book analyses the motives and models used by municipal authorities in their calculations around real estate tax and considers whether they are primarily a fiscal tool, related to budget revenues, or stimulants for future growth aimed at boosting local socio‐economic development. It also explores whether municipalities compete with neighbouring entities on taxation and the extent to which the political cycle and the meeting of voter demands and expectations play a role. This book will be of great interest to readers in public economics and finance, taxation policy and law, local government and the CEE region more broadly. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Discerning Experts assesses the assessments that many governments rely on to help guide environmental policy and action. Through their close look at environmental assessments involving acid rain, ozone depletion, and sea level rise, the authors explore how experts deliberate and decide on the scientific facts about problems like climate change. They also seek to understand how the scientists involved make the judgments they do, how the organization and management of assessment activities affects those judgments, and how expertise is identified and constructed. Discerning Experts uncovers factors that can generate systematic bias and error, and recommends how the process can be improved. As the first study of the internal workings of large environmental assessments, this book reveals their strengths and weaknesses, and explains what assessments can—and cannot—be expected to contribute to public policy and the common good.

"An accessible and different guide for students and practitioners alike... I′m sure that it will become a standard reference text for sports management" - Peter Taylor, Sport Industry Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University "A must have introductory reference guide for graduate and undergraduate sport management students" - Paul M. Pedersen, Indiana University "Provides students, practitioners and researchers in the field of sport management with a valuable compilation of sensitizing concepts, definitions and interesting references" - Michel van Slobbe, European Sport Management Quarterly Sharp, clear and relevant this book meets the needs of those studying and researching within the growing discipline of sport management. The intelligently cross-referenced entries provide a concise overview of the key concepts in the field guiding you through the important debates, sources and research methods in the management and delivery of sport. The book introduces readers to the concepts at the centre of their studies; it suggests relevant further reading and thoughts for future research and applies academic theory to business and organizational problems in a real-world context. Written for students, academics and practitioners the entries are designed to meet study needs and include: Clear definitions Comprehensive examples Practical applications Effective research methods.

The Zero Waste Shop Revolution by Milena Glimbovski - founder of Germany’s first zero waste shop – is the story of a woman who made a difference. In 2014, Milena Glimbovski had the bold idea to open a plastic-free supermarket "Original Unverpackt". At the time, the idea felt like a long shot. Many years, TED talks, successes, and failures later, Milena Glimbovski has arisen as an icon in the global zero waste movement. In her book, she talks of her experiences, the zero waste movement, and each recipe, trick, and life-hack she learned on her journey. The journey is inspiring and its telling is both sincere and scathingly funny. “There is a better way” ‘’If you’re currently sitting at home, in lockdown, tired of skipping through reruns of your favorite shows, and wondering how you can make a difference; do yourself a favor and read this book’’

A chance encounter. An unforgettable night. And back home, trouble is brewing on the remote island of Three Dragons, where nothing feels like it used to. Alone and lonely, Sam Threadneedle wishes upon a star, hoping for change. But when said change comes, it''s with a roar and not a whimper. Torn between loyalty and lust, Sam is forced to reevaluate everything. Can she and the Home of Dragons withstand the storm that is Magdalene Nox, or will any and all crumble? Not everything is as it seems, and as she slowly unravels the mysteries behind the centuries-old walls, Sam realizes that home is much more than oak and stone. Contains mature themes