With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson-the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent-brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed...

"No literary form is as admired and feared as poetry. Admired for its lengthy pedigree{u2014}a line of poets extending back to a time before recorded history{u2014}and a ubiquitous presence in virtually all cultures, poetry is also revered for its great beauty and the powerful emotions it evokes. But the form has also instilled trepidation in its many admirers mainly because of a lack of familiarity and knowledge. Poetry demands more from readers{u2014}intellectually,...

Warns against common errors in structure, style, and diction, and explains the fundamentals of conducting interviews and writing travel, scientific, sports, critical, and humorous articles.

Multiple award-winner Roger Rosenblatt has received glowing critical acclaim for his exceptional literary works-from the hilarious novels Lapham Rising and Beet to his poignant, heartbreaking, ultimately inspiring memoir Making Toast. With Unless It Moves the Human Heart, the revered novelist, essayist, playwright, and respected writing teacher offers a guidebook for aspiring authors, a memoir, and an impassioned argument for the necessity of writing...

"Robert Hass--former poet laureate, winner of the National Book Award, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize; illuminates the formal impulses that underlie great poetry in this accessible volume of essays drawn from a series of lectures he delivered at the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop,"--NoveList.

Recounts the legend of Robin Hood, who plundered the king's purse and poached his deer and whose generosity endeared him to the poor.

Kundera brilliantly examines the evolution, construction, and essence of the novel as an art form through the lens of his own work and through the work of such important and diverse figures as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Musil, Kafka, and perhaps the least known of all the great novelists of our time, Hermann Broch. Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the...

"From the author of The Queen of the Night, an essay collection exploring how we form our identities in life, in politics, and in art"--

Presents an animal for each letter of the alphabet, from antelope and bear to yak and zebra.

In this book, the bestselling author of The Boys of Summer shares stories of his Depression-era Brooklyn childhood, his career during a golden era of sports, and his personal acquaintances with a wide range of great ballplayers. His father had a passion for the Dodgers; his mother's passion was for poetry. Young Roger managed to blend both loves in a career that encompassed writing about sports for the New York Herald Tribune, Sports Illustrated,...