It's an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language, taking in monks and monkeys, film buffs and buffaloes, and explaining precisely what the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening.

    Yet despite a surge of popular interest in these remarkable people, few are fully aware of the richness of their artistic legacy, unique in all of pre-Columbian America. Maya art is a rare combination of linear elegance and naturalism blended with dazzling symbolic complexity. Decorated objects, ranging from painted vases and carved jade and shell ornaments to towering stone monuments and building facades, bear the traces of a symbol system that, while fascinating, can make an understanding of these images elusive to the uninitiated.Presented here for the first time is a compendium of one hundred hieroglyphs that are also the building blocks of ancient Maya painting and sculpture. Organized thematically, the symbols touch on many facets of the Maya world, from the natural environment—animals, plants, the heavens—to the mental landscape of gods, myths, and rituals. Using hundreds of line drawings and photographs, Andrea Stone and Marc Zender show how to identify these signs, understand their meaning, and appreciate the novel ways they appear in art. In addition to providing a basic introduction, the authors also offer many new and exciting interpretations.

    With this volume at your side, you need never be stalled or stymied for an appropriate expression, whether speaking of the higher reaches of philosophy or holding forth on art, music, or poetry--or other highbrow pastimes.The more you expand your vocabulary, the richer and clearer your writing and conversation will become. And the better you'll be able to say exactly what you mean, joining intellectual discussions with confidence that you've found just the right words.

    Now, in Vernacular Eloquence, he makes a vital new contribution to both practice and theory. The core idea is simple: we can enlistvirtues from the language activity most people find easiest-speaking-for the language activity most people find hardest-writing. Speech, with its spontaneity, naturalness of expression, and fluidity of thought, has many overlooked linguistic and rhetorical merits. Through several easy to employtechniques, writers can marshal this wisdom of the tongue to produce stronger, clearer, more natural writing.This simple idea, it turns out, has deep repercussions. Our culture of literacy, Elbow argues, functions as though it were a plot against the spoken voice, the human body, vernacular language, and those without privilege-making it harder than necessary to write with comfort or power. Giving speecha central role in writing overturns many empty preconceptions. It causes readers to think critically about the relationship between speech, writing, and our notion of literacy. Developing the political implications behind Elbow's previous books, Vernacular Eloquence makes a compelling case thatstrengthening writing and democratizing it go hand in hand.

    When her concerned parents investigate a neurological treatment that could change her life forever, Hannah must decide who she really is -- and who she wishes to become. Originally published in the March 2011 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

    Organized thematically, the book allows the reader to gain a full understanding of how to use a range of cockney phrases, covering the popular, traditional phrases, such as "apples and pears"—stairs, "Barnet Fair"—hair, and "sausage and mash"—crash, and some more modern additions.

    Moving fluidly between film, audio, video, and projection, and drawing on found materials such as wallpaper, postcards, and audio interviews, Hiller’s large-scale installations have done much in recent decades to redefine what a work of art can be. Much of her work is centered on the subconscious mind and ideas of the paranormal, exploring close encounters, automatic writing, and extrasensory perception, among other subjects. This enthralling survey of her entire career, published to accompany a major Tate exhibition, includes a conversation between the critics Guy Brett and Yves-Alan Bois, and the artist.

    Poems do not simply happen, they are made - Poetry: Tools & Techniques shows how to make them. In plain, straight-forward language, this practical guide introduces the devices and techniques used by successful poets. Poetry: Tools & Techniques is a starting point for writers to find their own direction rather than a definitive textbook on how to write in the proper and approved manner. Poetry: Tools & Techniques investigates the structure of language and how it conveys meaning - and from that shows how to create and use a poetic, a philosophy of language, to shape and inform your writing. The book encourages poets to explore the limits of language and discover how to make language speak beyond itself - to make language say what it was not designed to say, to express the inexpressible. Poetry: Tools & Techniques provides an introduction to the basic elements of poetry - metaphor, imagery, punctuation, syntax, rhythm, etc. - the actual techniques and devices that go into making a poem, right down to the nuts and bolts structural parts of language - the conjunctions, prepositions, articles, etc. - and shows how they affect poetic language. Whether you are a beginning poet or an experienced writer, Poetry: Tools & Techniques will help you improve your craft.

    Nursery rhymes are a precious part of childhood and this treasury features timeless, classic and modern rhymes to read aloud and share together.