Book picks similar to
Xenophobe's Guide to the Americans by Stephanie Faul
non-fiction
travel
humor
usa
Alan Partridge: Nomad
Alan Partridge - 2016
Diarising his ramble in the form of a 'journey journal', Alan details the people and places he encounters, ruminates on matters large and small and, on a final leg fraught with danger, becomes - not a man (because he was one to start off with) - but a better, more inspiring example of a man. This deeply personal book is divided into chapters and has a colour photograph on the front cover. It is deeply personal. Through witty vignettes, heavy essays and nod-inducing pieces of wisdom, Alan shines a light on the nooks of the nation and the crannies of himself, making this a biography that biographs the biographer while also biographing bits of Britain.
Forever Nomad: The Ultimate Guide to World Travel, From a Weekend to a Lifetime (Life Nomadic Book 2)
Tynan - 2018
Learn all the tricks nomads use to get plane tickets for a fraction of what normal people pay, how to maximize points and loyalty programs, how to access airport lounges and other VIP perks, and how to work and make friends around the world. You’ll even discover how to have multiple homes around the world for less than it costs for a one-bedroom in your home city. Most importantly, learn how to travel in harmony with regular life, rather than have it become a stressful disruption as it is for most people. Forever Nomad is a book about making the entire world into your world, and doing so in a sustainable and enjoyable way.
The Playbook: Suit up. Score chicks. Be awesome.
Matt Kuhn - 2010
. . not banging chicks?" The search is over. Now, with the help of The Playbook, you'll be able to approach any beautiful woman, discover her innermost passion, and use that to trick her into sleeping with you. You'll master more than 75 seduction techniques, developed by pickup guru and all-around good guy Barney Stinson, guaranteed to turn you into a bona fide ladies' man.
A History Lover's Guide to Washington, DC: Designed for Democracy (History & Guide)
Alison B. Fortier - 2014
Alternating between site visits and brief historical narratives, this guide tells the story of Washington, DC, from its origins to current times. From George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the Kennedy Center, trek through each era of the federal district, on a tour of America’s most beloved sites. Go inside the White House, the only executive home in the world regularly open to the public. Travel to President Lincoln’s Cottage and see where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. And visit lesser-known sites, such as the grave of Pierre L’Enfant, the city’s Botanical Gardens, the Old Post Office, and a host of historical homes throughout the capital. This is the only guide you’ll need to curate an unforgettable expedition to our shining city on a hill.
Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The Words of Karl Pilkington
Karl Pilkington - 2007
From sunbathing in t-shirts and lizards the length of Toblerones, to a toxic apartment in Ibiza with a used loo that can't be flushed, these witty musings could put you off travelling forever!
Male vs. Man: How to Honor Women, Teach Children, and Elevate Men to Change the World
Dondré T. Whitfield - 2020
Men look to be of service. Emmy Award–nominated actor best known for his role on Queen Sugar and transformational speaker Dondré Whitfield challenges us to be real men in this provocative look at the power found in serving others.Too many males abuse the power they have.Often those males grow up without healthy role models and so, while they look like men, they act like boys. Only now there are adult consequences to their actions.And many of us are caught in the shifting cultural ideas about manhood, unsure of how to make sound decisions or truly be a man. Every day we find evidence that the role of men at home, at work, and out in the world is deeply misinterpreted.In Male vs. Man, Dondré Whitfield equips us to become men rather than simply "grown males." Men are healthy and productive servant-leaders who bring positive change to their communities. Males are self-serving and stuck in negative cycles that we hear and read about daily. They create chaos instead of cultivating calm.Male vs. Man is an uplifting playbook for men who want to level up. It will help men and women alike understand what real manhood is, based on biblical wisdom as well as hard-earned lessons from someone who has been there. With practical guidance and a strong spiritual foundation, Dondré shows how to cultivate the life-changing spiritual, emotional, and psychological attributes of servant leadership at home, at work, and in our communities.
The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us
Paul Tough - 2019
Drawing on new research, the book reveals how the landscape of higher education has shifted in recent decades and exposes the hidden truths of how the system works and whom it works for. And it introduces us to the people who really make higher education go: admissions directors trying to balance the class and balance the budget, College Board officials scrambling to defend the SAT in the face of mounting evidence that it favors the wealthy, researchers working to unlock the mysteries of the college-student brain, and educators trying to transform potential dropouts into successful graduates. With insight, humor, and passion, Paul Tough takes readers on a journey from Ivy League seminar rooms to community college welding shops, from giant public flagship universities to tiny experimental storefront colleges. Whether you are facing your own decision about college or simply care about the American promise of social mobility, The Years That Matter Most will change the way you think—not just about higher education, but about the nation itself.
Whatever Happened to Margo?
Margaret Durrell - 1995
But any hopes of a conventional clientele were dashed as the establishment was colonized by a host of eccentrics, comprising, among others, a painter of nudes, a battered wife, a chauvinist bricklayer, and a Maltese transsexual. With brother Gerald descending from time to time upon this extraordinary household, accompanied as ever by his travelling menagerie, the scene was set for a multitude of hilarious adventures. In such company, and with such tenants, the landlady herself could not long stand aloof, and indeed was shortly drawn into a surreptitious love affair with a trombonist.
Educating Ruby: What our children really need to learn
Guy Claxton - 2015
It is for everyone who cares about education in an uncertain world and explains how teachers, parents and grandparents can cultivate confidence, curiosity, collaboration, communication, creativity, commitment and craftsmanship in children, at the same time as helping them to do well in public examinations. Educating Ruby shows, unequivocally, that schools can get the right results in the right way, so that the Rubys of tomorrow will emerge from their time at school able to talk with honest pleasure and reflective optimism about their schooling. Featuring the views of schoolchildren, parents, educators and employers and drawing on Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas’ years of experience in education, including their work with Building Learning Power and the Expansive Education Network, this powerful new book is sure to provoke thinking and debate. Just as Willy Russell’s Educating Rita helped us rethink university, the authors of Educating Ruby invite fresh scrutiny of our schools.
Canadianity: Tales from the True North Strong and Freezing
Jeremy Taggart - 2017
Canadianity takes readers on a cross-country journey, shining the spotlight on notable local heroes (or bahds), the best places to crush food and the greasiest watering holes, coast to coast to coast.Replete with lists of Canada’s top bands, television shows and athletes, as well as random observations about everything this country has to offer, Canadianity is often provocative and always hilarious. Drawing on their combined experiences as a legendary drummer (Our Lady Peace) and a veteran talk-show host (Jonovision) respectively, Taggart and Torrens have infused their first book with equal parts beer and pop culture and added a heaping helping of irreverence.
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong
Jean-Benoît Nadeau - 2003
Decrypting French ideas about land, privacy and language, Nadeau and Barlow weave together the threads of French society--from centralization and the Napoleonic Code to elite education and even street protests--giving us, for the first time, a complete picture of the French.
Hacking Engagement: 50 Tips & Tools To Engage Teachers and Learners Daily (Hack Learning Series Book 7)
James Alan Sturtevant - 2016
Many students are bored and disengaged Teachers are handcuffed by outdated textbooks, standardized curriculum, and disinterested students. What if you could solve these problems immediately and excite even your most reluctant learners daily? Read it Today and Engage tomorrow! 33-year veteran teacher, author, presenter, and engagement guru James Alan Sturtevant makes it easy, with incredible teacher tips and tools for both the veteran and student teacher--50 engagement tools that you can begin using right now, with no special training or boring professional development. Easily rebrand your class and connect with all students Are you the teacher students "hate"? Do kids groan when they walk into your classroom? Engaging learners is all about connecting and making education fun. With Sturtevant's education tips and creative teaching tools, students will rebrand you and your class as their favorites. Best of all, they'll engage with every lesson you teach, every single day! 50 Tips and Tools Unlike other education books that weigh you down with archaic research and impossible-to-implement strategies, Hacking Engagement, the 7th book in the popular Hack Learning Series, provides 50 unique, exciting, and actionable tips and tools that you can apply right now. And there's something here for every teacher--no matter what grade or subject you teach. Try one of these amazing engagement strategies tomorrow:
Engage the Enraged
Create Celebrity Couple Nicknames
Hash out a Hashtag
Empower Students to Help You Uncover Your Biases
Avoid the Great War on Yoga Pants
Let Your Freak Flag Fly
Become a Proponent of the Exponent
Trade Blah, Blah, Blah for Zen
Transform Your Class into a Focus Group
Commit to Engagement Try at least one tip or tool now and witness an amazing transformation in your classroom and school. Are you ready to engage? Scroll up and grab your copy of Hacking Engagement now.
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)
Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling - 2020
In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road.When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness.The anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton's neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity.A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this is the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment -- to live free or die, perhaps from a bear.
The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings
David F. Lancy - 2008
The Anthropology of Childhood provides the first comprehensive review of the literature on children from a distinctly anthropological perspective. Bringing together key evidence from cultural anthropology, history, and primate studies, it argues that our common understandings about children are narrowly culture-bound. Whereas dominant society views children as precious, innocent and preternaturally cute 'cherubs', Lancy introduces the reader to societies where children are viewed as unwanted, inconvenient 'changelings', or as desired but pragmatically commoditized 'chattels'. Looking in particular at family structure and reproduction, profiles of children's caretakers, their treatment at different ages, their play, work, schooling, and transition to adulthood, this volume provides a rich, interesting, and original portrait of children in past and contemporary cultures. A must-read for anyone interested in childhood.
Xenophobe's Guide to the Greeks
Alexandra Fiada - 1995
They exhibit an extreme passion for freedom of choice—which has turned law circumvention into an art and has made them incapable of comprehending words like “discipline,” “co-ordination,” or “system.” There's no such thing as a meek GreekA Greek cannot talk unless he has his hands free, and a soft-spoken Greek is one who can be heard only as far as across the street. Two Greeks having an amiable conversation sound as if they are ready to murder each other, and a party of exuberant Greeks having a good time could be described as a pack of hounds that has just sighted the fox. Free spiritsMercurial in the extreme, the Greeks' temperament flourishes uninhibited throughout their waking hours. This is probably why the ancient sages saw fit to carve their maxims “Nothing in excess” and “Know thyself” on the portals of the Delphic Oracle, in an attempt to persuade their fellow Greeks to curb their emotions. They were not heeded then any more than they are now. How much does a Greek urn?In general, Greeks believe in free trade, fair dealing, and keeping one's word. They are quick at grasping (and inventing) complicated business and financial arrangements and they are past masters in acting as middlemen—which means that they are paid by both parties while risking nothing themselves.