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  Black Sheep and Lame Ducks -...

  Albert Jack

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  The fun and fascinating follow-up to the international bestseller Red Herrings and White Elephants   Why do people put their "skeletons in a closet," "have a hunch," "get the cold shoulder," "get dressed up to the nines," or "call a spade a spade?" These phrases are used every day, yet most people have little or no idea where most of them come from. In Black Sheep and Lame Ducks, Albert Jack takes readers on a journey through the curious- and often bizarre-origins of hundreds of their favorite idioms and expressions.   For example, "wearing your heart on your sleeve" comes from the Middle Ages, when a lady would "give her heart" in the form of a handkerchief pinned to the sleeve of a knight who was about to go into battle. And calling someone the "black sheep in the family" refers to a thousands- year-old belief that a black lamb in a flock was unpopular because its fleece was undyeable and therefore less valuable.   With Black Sheep and Lame Ducks, any language-lover can feel like a "Smart Aleck"-and also know exactly who that was.  Albert Jack has become something of a publishing phenomenon, clocking up millions of sales with his series of bestselling adventures tracing the fantastic stories behind everyday phrases (Red Herrings and White Elephants), the world's great mysteries (Loch Ness Monsters and Raining Frogs), food history (What Caesar did for My Salad, pub names (The Old Dog and Duck) and nursery rhymes (Pop Goes the Weasel).

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  Conversations before Silence -...

  Oles Ilchenko

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  An avid reader of English-language poets such as William Carlos Williams and Stanley Kunitz, Ilchenko is one of the best Ukrainian poets writing in free verse today. His poetry is associative, flitting, and fragmentary. At times he does not form complete sentences in his poems and links words together into phrases before shifting into another thought or idea. The language of his poetry has a tendency to collapse into itself, often forcing the reader to reevaluate a word or line, to reread a previous word to focus on the poet’s inner logic. This fragmentary incompleteness and permeability mimics much the way human consciousness works without the filter of the written communicative convention of sentences and grammatical structure. This “slipperiness” and rapid shifting of voice comprises one of the essential invariants in Ilchenko’s poetics. The poet also flaunts many traditional poetic Ukrainian conventions. Like ee cummings he tends to avoid capital letters or punctuation such as exclamation points. One will find only commas and dashes for pauses, and an occasional period in his poems, which do not always end with the finality of that punctuation mark. In doing this, the poet often suggests a fragment or slice of his life broken off on the page and to be continued at some point in time. He is a fascinating poet whose idiom and unique manner of expression translates seamlessly into the poetics of contemporary English.

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  Maps of the Imagination - The...

  Peter Turchi

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  In Maps of the Imagination, Peter Turchi posits the idea that maps help people understand where they are in the world in the same way that literature, whether realistic or experimental, attempts to explain human realities. The author explores how writers and cartographers use many of the same devices for plotting and executing their work, making crucial decisions about what to include and what to leave out, in order to get from here to there, without excess baggage or a confusing surplus of information. Turchi traces the history of maps, from their initial decorative and religious purposes to their later instructional applications. He describes how maps rely on projections in order to portray a three-dimensional world on the two-dimensional flat surface of paper, which he then relates to what writers do in projecting a literary work from the imagination onto the page.

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  Horror Screenwriting - The...

  Devin Watson

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  The horror genre has one of the longest, most distinguished, and often misunderstood bloodlines in history. It is often overlooked by critics, Watson argues, who miss the hard-hitting commentary on society and life contained in these works.

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  Spellbinding Sentences - A...

  Barbara Baig

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  Elevate Your Writing From So-So To Spectacular! 
  Great writing requires more than an original idea, compelling characters, or a scintillating plot. An author needs all of these to be successful, but writing--and writing well--also demands an entirely different skill set. 
  Spellbinding Sentences arms you with the tools you need to master the power of the English language. In this book, you'll learn the different qualities of words and the many ways those words can be combined to create sentences that hook readers. You'll emulate sentences from your favorite writers, practice proven techniques, and develop your skills one step at a time. The result? Your ability to craft excellent sentences will become second nature--and those sentences will hold your readers spellbound, page after page. 
  "Barbara Baig's Spellbinding Sentences is a tribute to the pleasure and vitality of the English language. Never prescriptive and always clear, this enlightening book is sure to help all those wishing to add grace and strength to their writing." --Jane Brox, award-winning author of Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, one of TIME magazine's top ten nonfiction books of 2010 
  "Spellbinding Sentences is sophisticated and down-to-earth at the same time. Barbara Baig has distilled decades of experience into this wise book." --Edward Dolnick, New York Times best-selling author of The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece

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  Talking with Your Toddler - 75...

  Teresa Laikko, Laura Laikko

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  A HANDY PARENT'S GUIDE THAT TURNS PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT INTO CHILD'S PLAYAre you concerned that your child is not verbalizing? The solution may be as simple as a game. Talking with Your Toddler teaches you how to stimulate speech using everyday play. It makes learning to talk fun and engaging for your child.With proven therapies and easy-to-follow activities, Talking with Your Toddler makes an ideal home companion.- Tips to promote talking throughout the day- Hands-on games that teach new words- Tricks for turning drive time into talk time- Fun ways to promote further practice- Techniques for keeping kids engagedWritten by experienced speech professionals, this book’s straightforward approach is equally useful for parents at home, teachers in the classroom or therapists in a clinic.

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