This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking


John Brockman - 2012
    Their visionary answers flow from the frontiers of psychology, philosophy, economics, physics, sociology, and more. Surprising and enlightening, these insights will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the world.Contributors include:Daniel Kahneman on the “focusing illusion”Jonah Lehrer on controlling attentionRichard Dawkins on experimentationAubrey De Grey on conquering our fear of the unknownMartin Seligman on the ingredients of well-beingNicholas Carr on managing “cognitive load”Steven Pinker on win-win negotiatingDaniel Goleman on understanding our connection to the natural worldMatt Ridley on tapping collective intelligenceLisa Randall on effective theorizingBrian Eno on “ecological vision”J. Craig Venter on the multiple possible origins of life  Helen Fisher on temperamentSam Harris on the flow of thoughtLawrence Krauss on living with uncertainty

One Hundred Great Essays (Penguin Academics Series)


Robert DiYanni - 2001
    The anthology combines classic essays of great instructional value together with the most frequently anthologized essays of recent note by today's most highly regarded writers. The selections exhibit a broad range of diversity in subject matter and authorship. All essays have been selected for their utility as both models for writing and for their usefulness as springboards for independent writing. An introductory section informs readers about the qualities of the essay form and offers instruction on how to read essays critically and use the writing process to develop their own essays. For those interested in learning about reading, writing and critical thinking by studying examples of great writing.

Writing Analytically


David Rosenwasser - 1996
    The popular, brief rhetoric that treats writing as thinking, WRITING ANALYTICALLY offers a sequence of specific prompts that teach students across the curriculum how the process of analysis and synthesis is a vehicle for original and well-developed ideas.

Raking the Ashes


Anne Fine - 2005
    Then along comes Geoffrey, gentle, compassionate, generous to a fault, with his miserable little children and his manipulative ex-wife.Tilly's own expertise in the arts of deception and avoidance should be enough to make sure she's always one step ahead of Geoffrey's disastrous, crumbling family. But time and again she finds herself staying, brought down by their cowardly backsliding and their barefaced lies.How has she managed to stay so long in a relationship she knows perfectly well has to be doomed? More importantly, how can Tilly plan her permanent escape?

English Romantic Verse


David Wright - 1968
    Nearly all the famous piéces de résistance will be found here - 'Intimations of Immortality', 'The Ancient Mariner', 'The Tyger', excerpts from 'Don Juan' - as well as some less familiar poems. As far as possible the poets are arranged in chronological order, and their poems in order of composition, beginning with eighteenth-century precursors such as Gray, Cowper, Burns and Chatterton. Naturally most space has been given over to the major Romantics - Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Clare and Keats - although their successors, poets such as Beddoes and Poe, are included too, as well as early poems by Tennyson and Browning. In an excellent introduction David Wright discusses the Romantics as a historical phenomenon, and points out their central ideals and themes.

The Pajamaist


Matthew Zapruder - 2006
    In his second collection he engages love, mortality, and life in New York City after 9/11. The title piece, a prose-poem synopsis of an unwritten novel, turns all literary forms upon themselves with savvy and flair, while the elegy cycle “Twenty Poems for Noelle” is a compassionate song for a suffering friend.Noelle, somewhere in an apartmentsymphony number twolistens to you breathing.Broken glass in the street.What was once unglowing glows. . . The Pajamaist is an intimate book filled with sly wit and an ever-present, infectious openness to amazement. Zapruder’s poems are urbane and constantly, curiously searching.

What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life, and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day


Christopher Lloyd - 2008
    Along the way, he explains exactly how Muslim conquest gave Spain its paella, how the Earth's collision with another young planet created the moon, how dragonflies the size of seagulls emerged out of the prehistoric waters, and how the Big Bang can be detected in your television. Accessible and endlessly entertaining, this massive book draws on disciplines as wide-ranging as astrophysics and anthropology and will appeal to experts, amateur enthusiasts and the simply curious alike. Completed by 250 colourful photographs, maps, historic paintings, engravings and specially commissioned illustrations, What on Earth Happened? takes an entertaining and informed sideways look at the last 13.7 billion years in the life of our universe. Do you know What on Earth Happened?

Seasons Come To Pass


Helen Moffett - 2002
    This latest edition includes new notes and exercises, and has a freshly designed, learning-friendly format that makes it more relevant and accessible to students of poetry in Southern Africa.

Sleeping on the Wing: An Anthology of Modern Poetry with Essays on Reading and Writing


Kenneth Koch - 1981
    Koch and Farrell, experienced teachers as well as poets, write about poetry in such a way that students will find it accessible and interesting. The book includes selections of poetry by twenty-three poets, among them Dickinson, Hopkins, Pound, Williams and Eliot, as well as Ginsberg, O'Hara, Baraka and Ashbery. There is also the translated work of such modern European poets such as Lorca, Rilke, Rimbaud, Apollinaire and Mayakowsky.

The Portable Beat Reader


Ann Charters - 1992
    Featuring: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey, Charles Bukowski, Michael McClure, and more.

Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life: A Former CIA Officer Reveals Safety and Survival Techniques to Keep You and Your Family Protected


Jason Hanson - 2015
    In addition to escaping handcuffs, picking locks, and spotting when someone is telling a lie, he can improvise a self-defense weapon, pack a perfect emergency kit, and disappear off the grid if necessary. He has also honed his “positive awareness”—a heightened sense of his surroundings that allows him to spot suspicious and potentially dangerous behavior—on the street, in a taxi, at the airport, when dining out, or in any other situation. In his engaging and empowering book Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life, Jason shares this know-how with readers, revealing how to:   •  prevent home invasions, carjackings, muggings, and other violent crimes    •  run counter-surveillance and avoid becoming a soft target    •  recognize common scams at home and abroad    •  become a human lie detector in any setting, including business negotiations    •  gain peace of mind by being prepared for anything instead of uninformed or afraid With the skill of a trained operative and the relatability of a suburban dad, Jason Hanson brings his top-level training to everyday Americans in this must-have guide to staying safe in an increasingly dangerous world.

US(a.)


Saul Williams - 2015
    US(a.) is a collection of poems that embodies the spirit of a culture that questions sentiments and realities, embracing a cross-section of pop culture, hip-hop, and the greater world politic of the moment. Williams explores what social media may only hint at—times and realities have changed; there is a connect and a disconnect. We are wirelessly connected to a past and path to which we are chained. Saul Williams stops and frisks the moment, makes it empty its pockets, and chronicles what’s inside. Here is an extraordinary book that will find its place in the hands and minds of a new generation.

Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge


Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1950
    Each collection has a specially commissioned introduction.

Thirty Days Has September: Cool Ways to Remember Stuff


Christopher Stevens - 2008
    It makes a lovely gift from parent to child and a perfect learning companion to help all school children. It is a treasure trove of easy methods to take important information from the back of the mind to the tip of children's tongues.

Writing about Writing: A College Reader


Elizabeth Wardle - 2010
    Their groundbreaking new reader, Writing About Writing, does exactly that, by encouraging students to draw on what they know in order to contribute to ongoing conversations about writing and literacy. Class-tested by thousands of students, Writing about Writing presents accessible writing studies research by authors such as Donald Murray, Mike Rose, and Deborah Brandt, together with popular texts by authors such as Malcolm X, Sherman Alexie, and Junot Díaz. Throughout the book, friendly explanations and scaffolded questions help students connect to readings and — even more important — develop knowledge about writing they can use at work, in their everyday lives, and in college. The conversation on writing about writing continues on the authors' blog, Write On: Notes on Writing about Writing (a channel on Bedford Bits, Bedford/St.Martin's blog for teachers of writing).