The Spell of the Sensuous
Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
Written by David Abram

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 25, 1997
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-77639-0 (0-679-77639-7)

Winner of the Lannan Award for Nonfiction

David Abram's award-winning work of natural philosophy is already transforming debates at the forefront of environmental studies, psychology, anthropology, literary theory, and philosophy.  Praised for "combining poetic passion with intellectual rigor and daring," (Lannan Award citation), The Spell of the Sensuous explores the earthly, ecological dimensions... Read more >

The Poetics of Reverie

Written by Gaston Bachelard

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: June 1, 1971
Price: $22.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6413-9 (0-8070-6413-0)

In this, his last significant work, an admired French philosopher provides extraordinary meditations on the relation between the imagining consciousness and the world, positing the notion of reverie as its most dynamic point of reference. Read more >

The Poetics of Space

Written by Gaston Bachelard

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: April 1, 1994
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6473-3 (0-8070-6473-4)

“A magical book. . . . A prism through which all worlds from literary creation to housework to aesthetics to carpentry take on enhanced-and enchanted-significances. Every reader of it will never see ordinary spaces in ordinary ways. Instead the reader will see with the soul of the eye, the glint of... Read more >

Rip the Page!
Adventures in Creative Writing
Written by Karen Benke

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Roost Books
On Sale: July 27, 2010
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-59030-812-7 (1-59030-812-3)

Rip The Page! is an interactive writing workbook for children ages 8 to 12, offering a dynamic approach to language, ideas, and writing. Full of innovative exercises, inspiring ideas, and word lists to launch many writing adventures, this book encourages children to explore their own creative ideas and get writing. With... Read more >

I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World

Written by Jag Bhalla

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: June 16, 2009
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0458-6 (1-4262-0458-2)

"I’m not hanging noodles from your ear." In Moscow, this curious, engagingly colorful assertion is common parlance, but unless you’re Russian your reaction is probably "Say what?" The same idea in English is equally odd: "I’m not pulling your leg." Both mean: Believe me.

As author Jag Bhalla demonstrates, these amusing, often... Read more >

Beyond the Writers' Workshop
New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction
Written by Carol Bly

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 17, 2001
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-49919-4 (0-385-49919-1)

Teachers and writers everywhere are facing the limits imposed by the prevailing models of teaching: community or MFA “workshops” or, at the high-school level, “peer review.” In Beyond the Writers' Workshop Carol Bly presents an alternative. She believes that workshopping’s tendency to engage in wry scorn and pay exaggerated attention to... Read more >

Composition of Scientific Words

Written by Roland Wilbur Brown

Format: Trade Paperback, 882 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: July 17, 2000
Price: $37.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-848-9 (1-56098-848-7)

Born of the linguistic fascination of a noted paleontologist, Composition of Scientific Words includes a brief introduction to the history and elementary structure of English, Greek, and Latin, followed by a guide for the formulation of technical terms. The main selection, the lexicon, is an alphabetical list of key words. It... Read more >

Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

Written by Bill Bryson

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: May 12, 2009
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2270-8 (0-7679-2270-0)

From one of America's most beloved and bestselling authors, a wonderfully useful and readable guide to the problems of the English language most commonly encountered by editors and writers.

What is the difference between “immanent” and “imminent”? What is the singular form of graffiti? What is the difference between “acute” and “chronic”?... Read more >

It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences
A Writer's Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences
Written by June Casagrande

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
On Sale: July 27, 2010
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-1-58008-740-7 (1-58008-740-X)

This new, innovative writing book from grammar columnist June Casagrande focuses on the sentence as the unit of meaning in writing, showing writing students and professional writers alike how to craft bold, effective, reader-serving sentences.

CONTENTS
Introduction The Sentence: The Writer’s Most Important Tool
Ch. 1  Who Cares? Making Sentences Meaningful to Your Reader
Ch... Read more >

9-11
Was There an Alternative?
Written by Noam Chomsky

Format: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: August 30, 2011
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-343-8 (1-60980-343-4)

In 9-11, published in November 2001 and arguably the single most influential post 9-11 book, internationally renowned thinker Noam Chomsky bridged the information gap around the World Trade Center attacks, cutting through the tangle of political opportunism, expedient patriotism, and general conformity that choked off American discourse in the months immediately... Read more >

Profit Over People
Neoliberalism and Global Order
Written by Noam Chomsky

Format: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: December 8, 1998
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-888363-82-1 (1-888363-82-7)

Why is the Atlantic slowly filling with crude petroleum, threatening a millions-of-years-old ecological balance? Why did traders at prominent banks take high-risk gambles with the money entrusted to them by hundreds of thousands of clients around the world, expanding and leveraging their investments to the point that failure led to a... Read more >

Train Go Sorry
Inside a Deaf World
Written by Leah Hager Cohen

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 25, 1995
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76165-5 (0-679-76165-9)

In American Sign Language, "train go sorry" means "missing the boat." Cohen uses the phrase as shorthand for the myriad missed connections between the deaf and the hearing. Yet in this stunning work of journalism and memoir she also forges new connections. As she ushers readers into New York's Lexington School... Read more >

Um. . .
Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean
Written by Michael Erard

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: August 12, 2008
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9543-8 (1-4000-9543-3)

This original, entertaining, and surprising book investigates verbal blunders: what they are, what they say about those who make them, and how and why we've come to judge them.

Um... is about how you really speak, and why it's normal for your everyday speech to be filled with errors—about one in every... Read more >

Um. . .
Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean
Written by Michael Erard

Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: August 21, 2007
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-42356-7 (0-375-42356-7)

Um… is about how people really speak, and why it’s normal for casual, everyday speech to be filled with verbal blunders—about one in every ten words. Why do they happen? Why can’t we control them? What can you tell about the people who make them?

In this engaging account of language in... Read more >

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes
Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
Written by Daniel L. Everett

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 3, 2009
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-38612-0 (0-307-38612-0)

A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil.
Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became... Read more >

Word Play
What Happens When People Talk
Written by Peter Farb

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 31, 1993
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-73408-6 (0-679-73408-2)

Why do certain words make us blush or wince? Why do men and women really speak different languages? Why do nursery rhymes in vastly different societies possess similar rhyme and rhythm patterns? What do slang, riddles and puns secretly have in common?

This erudite, yet irresistibly readable book examines the game... Read more >

The Pen Commandments

Written by Steven Frank

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 14, 2004
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3229-7 (1-4000-3229-6)

Thou Shalt Honor Thy Reader, Thou Shalt Not Waste Words, Thou Shalt Not Kill Thy Sentences—these are three of the “pen” commandments through which, with humor and an engaging sense of purpose, Steven Frank inspires his readers not just to write but to write well.

Thou Shalt Take Pleasure in Thy Pen... Read more >

Thunder and Lightning
Cracking Open the Writer's Craft
Written by Natalie Goldberg

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: October 30, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-37496-4 (0-553-37496-6)

In this long-awaited sequel to her bestselling books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg takes us to the next step in the writing process: turning our flashes of inspiration—the thunder and lightning of creation—into a polished piece of work.

You've filled your notebooks, done your writing practice, discovered your... Read more >

Wild Mind
Living the Writer's Life
Written by Natalie Goldberg

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: October 1, 1990
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-34775-3 (0-553-34775-6)

Wild Mind takes students beyond craft to the true source of creative power: the mind that is "raw, full of energy, alive and hungry." Goldberg offers students practical advice on how to find time to write, discover personal style, make sentences come alive, and how to overcome procrastination and writer's block... Read more >

Seven American Deaths and Disasters

Written by Kenneth Goldsmith

Format: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: powerHouse Books
On Sale: March 12, 2013
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-57687-636-7 (1-57687-636-5)

What are the words we use to describe something that we never thought we'd have to describe? In Seven American Deaths and Disasters, Kenneth Goldsmith transcribes historic radio and television reports of national tragedies as they unfurl, revealing an extraordinarily rich linguistic panorama of passionate description. Taking its title from the... Read more >

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire
A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed
Written by Karen Elizabeth Gordon

Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: August 10, 1993
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-41860-3 (0-679-41860-1)

Here now is an enlarged version of the only handbook of grammar you will ever want to read. With this special edition, Gordon gives the reader more illustrations and even more examples of confusing appositives, the many uses of gerunds, the complicated matter of agreements. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire includes such... Read more >

The Dance of Life
The Other Dimension of Time
Written by Edward T. Hall

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 9, 1984
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-19248-4 (0-385-19248-7)

First published in 1983, this book studies how people are tied together and yet isolated by hidden threads of rhythm and walls of time. Time is treated as a language, organizer, and message system revealing people's
feelings about each other and reflecting differences between cultures. Read more >

The Silent Language

Written by Edward T. Hall

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: July 3, 1973
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-05549-9 (0-385-05549-8)

Leading anthropologist Hall analyzes the many aspects of non-verbal communication and considers the concepts of space and time as tools for transmission of messages. His stimulating work is of interest to both the intelligent general reader and the sophisticated social scientist. Read more >

Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln
21 Powerful Secrets of History's Greatest Speakers
Written by James C. Humes

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: April 23, 2002
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-7615-6351-8 (0-7615-6351-2)

Ever wish you could captivate your boardroom with the opening line of your presentation, like Winston Churchill in his most memorable speeches? Or want to command attention by looming larger than life before your audience, much like Abraham Lincoln when, standing erect and wearing a top hat, he towered over seven... Read more >

The Modern Library Writer's Workshop
A Guide to the Craft of Fiction
Written by Stephen Koch

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: April 1, 2003
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75558-3 (0-375-75558-6)

Compiling wisdom and advice from such masters of the craft as Henry James, E. M. Forster, Eudora Welty, and Toni Morrison, this guide to fiction writing provides helpful observations and techniques for would-be fiction writers, covering such topics as: Beginnings; The Writing Life; Shaping the Story; Making Characters Live; Inventing Your... Read more >