Did you know that the Japanese language has a word to express the way sunlight filters through the leaves of trees? Or that there’s a Finnish word for the distance a reindeer can travel before needing to rest? Lost in Translation brings to life more than fifty words that don’t have direct English translations with charming illustrations of their tender, poignant, and humorous definitions. Often these words provide insight into the cultures they come from, such as the Brazilian Portuguese word for running your fingers through a lover’s hair, the Italian word for being moved to tears by a story, or the Swedish word for a third cup of coffee. In this clever and beautifully rendered exploration of the subtleties of communication, you’ll find new ways to express yourself while getting lost in the artistry of imperfect translation.

    Everywhere you turn, publications seem to follow different rules on everything from possessive apostrophes to hyphens to serial commas. Then there are all the gray areas of punctuation--situations the rule books gloss over or never mention at all. At last, help has arrived.This all-in-one reference from grammar columnist June Casagrande covers the basic rules of punctuation plus the finer points not addressed anywhere else, offering clear answers to perplexing questions about semicolons, quotation marks, periods, apostrophes, and more. Better yet, this is the only guide that uses handy icons to show how punctuation rules differ for book, news, academic, and science styles--so you can boldly switch between essays, online newsletters, reports, fiction, and magazine and news articles.Style guides don't cover everything, but never fear! This handbook features rulings from an expert "Punctuation Panel" so you can see how working pros approach sticky situations. And the second half of the book features an alphabetical master list of commonly punctuated terms worth its weight in gold, combining rulings from the major style guides and showing exactly where they differ. With The Best Punctuation Book, Period, you'll be able to handle any punctuation predicament in a flash--and with aplomb.

    This workout is a comprehensive program, chock-full of information about synonyms, antonyms, and word origins, and replete with advice on proper usage and pronunciation. There are also creative review quizzes at each step of the way to measure your progress and reinforce learning. Unlike other vocabulary books, Word Workout provides a complete learning experience with clear explanations and surefire methods to retain new knowledge. Far more than a cram session for a standardized test, this book is designed as a lifetime vocabulary builder, featuring words used by the top tier of literate Americans, laid out in ten accessible chapters designed for anyone who is looking for some serious verbal exercise.From "avowal" to "proselytize," from "demagogue" to "mendicant," Charles Harrington Elster has carefully picked the words you need to know, and given you an easy, fast, and fail-safe way to learn and remember them.

    In one gifty box set for the very first time, Mark Forsyth’s witty and erudite books on the wonders of the English language.In The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase, Mark Forsyth explores writing style and rhetoric, divulging tricks used by the Ancient Greeks to Katy Perry, demonstrating that certain phrases – like ‘Bond, James Bond’ – are effective because it’s not what you say, but how you say it.The Horologicon: A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language, is an unusual book on weird words for familiar situations, from ante-jentacular to snudge, arranged according to the hour of the day when you really need them.And the Sunday Times Number One bestseller, The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language, is a book on the strange connections between words, taking in monks and monkeys, film buffs and buffaloes, and explaining precisely what the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening.

    Wouldn't it be helpful to have an expert on hand to explain how the professionals really do it? Better still, how about a whole range of writers ready to pass on their trade secrets?Well that's exactly what you'll find in the pages of this book. Think of it as a rocket-assisted launch for your writing career, structured over ten distinct lessons and illustrated with classic and contemporary international examples of the best copywriting. Designed to help anyone who works with words improve their writing, this book is packed with practical techniques and features effective exercises to pump up your persuasive powers.Includes inspiring contributions from professional writers, an in-depth look at the challenges involved in writing copy for brands and worked examples that cover writing for digital, brand storytelling, and packaging copy.

    An ostentation of peacocks. A murder of crows. The English language brims with witty words for flocks of birds! Thought to have originated from hunting manuals, the practice of inventing collective nouns for birds has since evolved into a sport all its own, with new words striving to perfectly capture the essence of each bird.            A Conspiracy of Ravens presents readers with a compendium of collective bird nouns from the distant and not-so-distant past. Some of the nouns are portentous, like a tiding of magpies. Others, like a murmuration of starlings or a chattering of choughs, convey sound. Still more reflect with literary flourish the beauty of the bird: what could be more celebratory than a crown of kingfishers or an exaltation of larks? Featuring songbirds, aquatic birds, garden favorites, and birds of prey, this book collects more than one hundred of the best and most imaginative expressions and illustrates them with charming woodcuts by the eighteenth-century artist and naturalist Thomas Bewick.             A beautiful and entertaining read, A Conspiracy of Ravens will delight bird-lovers and word-lovers in equal measure.

    This delightful book, packed with heartfelt quotations from romantics old and new, is the perfect way to say, I love you to the moon and back.

    Enter To the Point, the essential guide to writing succinctly. Featuring hundreds of new entries, this freshly updated edition is complete with:• A guide to the basics of writing concisely, including how to reduce the number of words in a phrase, substitute a single word for a phrase, and delete extraneous words and phrases.• The "Dictionary of Concise Writing," which gives concise alternatives to thousands of wordy phrases. Language expert Robert Hartwell Fiske uses each wordy phrase in a sentence and then rewrites or deletes the phrase entirely to show how the sentence can be improved.• The brand new "Guide to Obfuscation: A Reverse Dictionary," which helps writers build a more pithy vocabulary.To the Point is the perfect reference book for anyone who wants to communicate more effectively through clear and beautiful writing.

    Through text, the act of weaving a tale or dropping a thread takes on new meaning for those who previously have seen textilesquilts, blankets, articles of clothing, and moreonly as functional objects. This book showcases crafters who take storytelling off the page and into the mediums of batik, stitching, dyeing, fabric painting, knitting, crochet, and weaving, creating objects that bear their messages proudly, from personal memoir and cultural fables to pictorial histories and wearable fictions. Full-color throughout, the book includes chapters on various aspects of textile storytelling, from "Textiles of Protest, Politics, and Power" to "The Fabric of Remembrance"; it also includes specific projects, such as the well-known and profoundly moving Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, as well as poetry mittens, button blankets, and stitched travel diaries. Offbeat, poetic, and subversive, "Strange Material" will inspire readers to re-imagine the possibilities of creating through needle and fabric. Leanne Prain is the co-author (with Mandy Moore) of "Yarn Bombing," now in its third printing, and the author of "Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery." A professional graphic designer, Leanne holds degrees in creative writing, art history, and publishing.