Jay Asher

Jay Asher is an American writer of contemporary novels for teens. He has one major publication in the genre of young adult literature.

Biography

Jay Asher was born in Arcadia, California on September 30, 1975. He grew up with a family that encouraged him to do all of his interests, from playing the guitar to his writing. He attended Cuesta Community College right after graduating from San Luis Obispo High School. It was here where he wrote his first two children’s books for a class called Children’s Literature Appreciation. After high school, he decided he wanted to become an elementary school teacher. He then transferred to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where he left his senior year in order to pursue his career as a serious writer. He married Joan Marie on September 7, 2002. Throughout his life he worked in various establishments, including working as a salesman in a shoe store and in libraries and bookstores. Many of his work experiences had an impact on some aspect of his writing.

Nickel Creek (album)

Nickel Creek is an eponymous album by the acoustic/"newgrass" trio known as Nickel Creek. The group had released two albums prior to this, however their earlier albums are no longer in print, and the band redefined their style before the release of Nickel Creek. As a result, Nickel Creek is widely regarded as their debut album. It was released by Sugar Hill Records, and produced by country star Alison Krauss.

Track listing

Original album cover

The album was originally released with a different cover photo which featured fourth band member Scott Thile. He was also mentioned more extensively in the album credits. Upon his departure from the band, the album was reprinted with a new photo which featured the remaining three members of the band, and Scott's credits were lessened slightly to simply indicate his performance on the individual songs.

Other than photography credit, the track listings, performances, and all other credits are identical on both releases.

Chart positions

Asher

Asr (Hebrew: אָשֵׁר, Modern shr, Tiberian šhr), in the Book of Genesis, is the second son of Jacob and Zilpah, and the founder of the Tribe of Asr.

Name

The text of the Torah argues that the name of Asr means happy/blessing, implying a derivation from the Hebrew term 'eshan his in two variations—beoAsri (meaning in my good fortune), and ishsheruni, which textual scholars attribute to different sources—one to the Yahwist and the other to the Elohist. Many scholars suspect that the name of Asr may have more to do with a deity originally worshipped by the tribe, either Asrah, or Ashur, the chief Assyrian deity; the latter possibility is cognate with Asr.

Biblical narrative

Asr played a role in selling his brother Joseph into slavery (Gen. 37:23–36). Asr and his four sons and daughter settled in Canaan. On his deathbed, Jacob blesses Asr by saying that "his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties" (Gen. 49:20).

Asr was the eighth son of the patriarch Jacob and the traditional progenitor of the tribe Asr. However, some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.

Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why (stylized as TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY) is a 2007 young-adult fiction novel written by Jay Asher. The book was published by RazorBill, a young adult imprint of Penguin Books. The paperback edition hit #1 on the New York Times best-seller list in July 2011.

Plot

Clay Jensen, a shy high school student, returns home from school one day to find a package from an anonymous person. He discovers that it is a shoe box containing seven cassette tapes recorded by the late Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who recently committed suicide. The tapes were initially mailed to one classmate with instructions to pass them from one student to another. On the tapes, Hannah explains to twelve people how they played a role in her death, by giving thirteen reasons explaining why she took her life. Hannah has given a second set of tapes to one of their classmates and warns the people on the tapes that if they do not pass them on, the second set will be leaked to the entire student body.

Reason (argument)

A reason is a consideration which justifies or explains.

Reasons are what people appeal to when making arguments about what people should do or believe. (Those are reasons in the normative sense.) For example, the fact that a doctor's patient is grimacing is a reason to believe the patient is in pain. The fact that the patient is in pain is a reason for the doctor to do things to alleviate the pain.

In another sense of the term, reasons are explanations of why things happened. (These are reasons in the explanatory sense.) For example, the reason the patient is in pain is that her nerves are sending signals from her tissues to her brain.

A reason, in many cases, is brought up by the question "why?", and answered following the word "because." Additionally, words and phrases like: since, due to, as, considering (that), a result (of), and in order to, for example, all serve as explanatory locutions that precede the reason to which they refer.

Normative vs. explanatory reasons