We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but why?In this delightful and original book, Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems—just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic?Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more “truthy” than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler’s ambitions were partly fueled by a story.But as Gottschall shows in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral—they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us.

    How do you react to sandwich boards, road signs, laminated instructions, and other written missives that are just not exactly what their creator meant? If you've ever (gently) judged anyone else for their linguistic failures, if you find yourself guffawing about the frequent confusion between "incontinence" and "inconvenience," if you've ever been tempted to whip out your marker to add in or cross out apostrophes, and if you've refused to answer e-mails in which "your" and "you're" are used interchangeably, this book is for you. With pictures culled from the Facebook group by the same name, I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar is a hilarious and eye-opening tour through restaurants and shops, through parking lots and along winding roads, and around the world.

    "Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences is a 2006 book by author Kitty Burns Florey about the history and art of sentence diagramming. Florey learned to diagram sentences as a Catholic school student at St. John the Baptist Academy in Syracuse, New York. Diagramming sentences is useful, Florey says, because it teaches us to "focus on the structures and patterns of language, and this can help us appreciate it as more than just a vehicle for expressing minimal ideas". Florey said in a 2012 essay "Taming Sentences":When we unscrew a sentence, figure out what makes it tick and reassemble it, we interact with our old familiar language differently, more deeply, responding to the way its individual components fit together. Once we understand how sentences work (what's going on? what action is taking place? who is doing it and to whom is it being done?), it's harder to write an incorrect one.Sentence diagramming was introduced by Brainerd Kellogg and Alonzo Reid, professors at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, in their book History of English published in 1877."Keywords: KITTY BURNS FLOREY SISTER BERNADETTE DOG BARKING DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES ENGLISH GRAMMAR REFERENCE LANGUAGE

    Crochet books were largely useless because it is difficult to teach a visual art through words—until now. Crochet for Beginners is full of color photos and diagrams that make it easy not only to learn beginning crocket stitches but really begin to put them into use, making more and more complicated projects, all the way up to crochet afghans. If you already know how to do basic crochet stitches and are looking for crocheting books that can help you take your projects to the next level, this book is also perfect for your needs. This books is very specific about not only how to start crocheting, but how to improve your skills with a range of techniques and crochet patterns that train you to make just about anything you want, quickly and easily. All you have to do is look at the pictures and diagrams and you will be able to make any of the 21 crochet patterns included in the book. This book teaches you to complete every single one of our patterns, even the most advanced ones, in less than three days. To speed up the process, the book also includes a full list of Glossary terms, to explain that crochet terminology that patterns and other crocheters use. There are even ten fast-track tips to get you crocheting fast and a FAQ to answer any questions you might have about crocheting, crochet stiches, what hooks to purchase, etc. You will be a master of crocheting in no time! Here are just some of the benefits provided by Crochet for Beginners: • Learn whether or not crocheting is harder than knitting • 21 different crochet projects, teaching you the skills to crochet just about anything • How to easily start crocheting and build your skills • How to join crochet pieces • And many more! Learning how to crochet is not a difficult or protracted process when you have the right tools. That is what Crochet for Beginners provides, a step-by-step, picture and diagram tutorial for simple and highly advanced projects. Scroll up and get your copy today! Check Out What Others Are Saying... "One thing I really love about the book is the abundance of clear, beautiful photos. They feature colorful crochet stitches done, has got to be one of my most favorite books. Why? Because you don't just read it cover to cover and walk away from it. It is useful, it is a resource, and I find myself referring to it time and time again. You see, I am a crocheter, but I don't crochet constantly so I forget stitches. A to Z Crochet is a great tool to remind me how to do a certain stitch. The pictures are helpful and show progressive steps. If there is more than one way to do something, you can bet it is explained.. I really appreciate these pics!I now have enough stitches to keep me crocheting into the next millennium. Easy instructions and great pictures...makes it hard to do anything other than crochet. For the price, this book is an absolutely incredible value. I expect to use this book as a reference for a long time to come." - Michelle Smith "I've always wanted to learn how to crochet, this book makes it so easy! The diagrams of the patterns were really helpful to me (it doesn't matter how many times someone explains something in words, I'm a visual learner!).

     The time-tested secrets this book discloses include Cicero’s three-step strategy for moving an audience to action—as well as Honest Abe’s Shameless Trick of lowering an audience’s expectations by pretending to be unpolished. But it’s also replete with contemporary techniques such as politicians’ use of “code” language to appeal to specific groups and an eye-opening assortment of popular-culture dodges—including The Yoda Technique, The Belushi Paradigm, and The Eddie Haskell Ploy. Whether you’re an inveterate lover of language books or just want to win a lot more anger-free arguments on the page, at the podium, or over a beer, Thank You for Arguing is for you. Written by one of today’s most popular language mavens, it’s warm, witty, erudite, and truly enlightening. It not only teaches you how to recognize a paralipsis and a chiasmus when you hear them, but also how to wield such handy and persuasive weapons the next time you really, really want to get your own way.

    The story begins in 1973, in the offices of The Atlantic Monthly, in Boston, where a young freelance writer named Tracy Kidder came looking for an assignment. Richard Todd was the editor who encouraged him. From that article grew a lifelong association. Before long, Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine, the first book the two worked on together, had won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a heady moment, but for Kidder and Todd it was only the beginning of an education in the art of nonfiction.Good Prose explores three major nonfiction forms: narratives, essays, and memoirs. Kidder and Todd draw candidly, sometimes comically, on their own experience—their mistakes as well as accomplishments—to demonstrate the pragmatic ways in which creative problems get solved. They also turn to the works of a wide range of writers, novelists as well as nonfiction writers, for models and instruction. They talk about narrative strategies (and about how to find a story, sometimes in surprising places), about the ethical challenges of nonfiction, and about the realities of making a living as a writer. They offer some tart and emphatic opinions on the current state of language. And they take a clear stand against playing loose with the facts. Their advice is always grounded in the practical world of writing and publishing.Good Prose—like Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style—is a succinct, authoritative, and entertaining arbiter of standards in contemporary writing, offering guidance for the professional writer and the beginner alike. This wise and useful book is the perfect companion for anyone who loves to read good books and longs to write one.

    As author James Cochrane explains, he does not take issue with the so-called "educated or uneducated" uses of the English language. Between You and I is more concerned with the particular form of English debasement we now have, which might be called the "half-educated" uses of language. Readers may be surprised to find that much of what they thought was "bad" English is in fact perfectly good and that what they have learned to think of as "good" English is sometimes ignorant, dishonest, or just plain stupid.

    But soon, Katherine finds herself drawn to the stranger in a way she had never quite imagined...!With her emotions in turmoil, her sexual appetite bordering on the ferocious and her marriage in jeopardy, Katherine must decide who she really belongs to. Herself? Her husband? Or the mysterious stranger on the telephone...

    More witty and stylish poetic therapy for the Venus and Mars generation.

    See also oxymoron, paradox.examples:"Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad."Victor Hugo"To lead the people, walk behind them." Lao-tzu"You'd be surprised how much it coststo look this cheap."Dolly PartonYou won't find the word "oxymoronica" in any dictionary (at least not yet) because Dr. Mardy Grothe introduces it to readers in this delightful collection of 1,400 of the most provocative quotations of all time. From ancient thinkers like Confucius, Aristotle, and Saint Augustine to great writers like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and G. B. Shaw to modern social observers like Woody Allen and Lily Tomlin, Oxymoronica celebrates the power and beauty of paradoxical thinking. All areas of human activity are explored, including love, sex and romance, politics, the arts, the literary life, and, of course, marriage and family life. The wise and witty observations in this book are as highly entertaining as they are intellectually nourishing and are sure to grab the attention of language lovers everywhere.

    Drawing on a wide range of  great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works.

    Included are 175 easy-to-use strategies, lessons, and checklists for effective classroom management, and over 50 reproducible samples that you can adopt immediately for planning, evaluation, or assignments. The Guide helps you create a classroom that reflects the excitement for learning that every English teacher desires.

    Now, America's baby-name experts pinpoint the very latest trends in this all-new, up-to-the-minute edition of "the best baby-naming book ever written" (The News Journal).Fresh, fabulous, and irresistible, Beyond Ava & Aiden is packed with fascinating new tips and lists, including:*Green Names (Bay, Willow, Aster)*Hipster Names (Pearl, Ruby, Dexter)*Names That Work (Archer, Baker, Carter)*Vintage Chic (Daisy, Clementine, Felix)*Metrodude Names (Jackson, Jax, Maddox)*Baby Gods and Goddesses (Juno, Orion, Clio)And many more inspired---and inspiring---choices.

    Set after a bank begins implementing a new retail banking strategy, we follow Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo, a director general in the Mexican government, who has received some disturbing news.A whistleblower has emailed Teresa with troubling news about a mistake in the loan default calculations and reserve ratios. The numbers do not add up.The book loosely uses the logic and financial analyses in A Typical McKinsey Engagement.Our business books are different.Most people learn business because they are forced to, for their careers or to earn a larger salary. Most business books are, consequently, boring and dense. They have little incentive to be interesting because they have a captive market. Many avoid a business career because the books are presented as a hurdle to be overcome. We wondered what would happen if we made business books interesting, so people chose to read them? Would we draw more people into business? Would we generate more enthusiasm and excitement for business at a younger age?This book teaches advanced business concepts through a compelling storyline. This new genre of our books is written not only for people already interested in business but also for people who may not realize they have an interest or talent for business. Clients always request gift ideas for their children, spouses, friends, and families to get them interested in business and critical thinking. In part, this is our response to those requests.We want you to learn advanced critical thinking without realizing you are learning. We hope you will enjoy it, too.We believe the more people who find business interesting and choose to learn business, the better it is for everyone. Businesses will have a larger pool of employees from whom to select and more of the right people will be choosing the discipline to improve humanity versus simply to make more money.Imagine the advantage your children will have if they learned critical thinking in high school, or even before high school? Imagine if you had that advantage? Imagine if you had learned strategy alongside science and math in high school? The possibilities would be endless. It all starts with the right books. And it’s never too late to start.If learning is engaging, it will stop being a chore.

    Blending theory with practice, the book helps pre-service and in-service teachers develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs they'll need to construct learning environments that make it possible for all students to reach their potential.