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Sleeping dogs don't lay: practical advice for the grammatically challenged

Lederer, Richard
For years Richard Lederer has enthralled fans of the English language with his keen insights, commonsense advice, and witty presentation. Now Lederer has teamed up with Richard Dowis to take readers on another journey through the world's most wonderful, albeit perplexing, language. How many times have we all heard the word viable used in company meetings? Lederer and Dowis show us how "viable," somewhere along the line, was extracted from medical books, where it literally means "capable of living," and placed into the business lexicon, where it means...well, who knows? The authors clear up once and for all the confusion between lay and lie and put to rest some common myths about language. The book's finale is a ten-minute writing lesson from which everyone, from rank amateur to seasoned pro, can benefit. These and dozens of other features make this book pure pleasure for language buffs, writers, and teachers. Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay is useful and authoritative as well as fun to read, with humorous touches often popping up where least expected and most needed.
St. Martin's Press 1999-09-10 212 pages

Among strangers

Silverberg, Robert
"SFWA Grand Master Silverberg (Voyagers) demonstrates why he merits that plaudit in this superior collection of three novels and one short story linked by the theme of humanity encountering intelligent alien life, or, as he puts it in his introduction, “reach out to meet others with uncertain hands.” “Those Who Watch” begins with an explosion over New Mexico that turns out to be a crashing spaceship; the ship’s three crew members survive and successfully pose as humans until three Earthlings see through their disguise. “The Man in the Maze” offers a less traditional story line, inspired by Sophocles’s tragedy Philoctetes and centered on diplomat Richard Muller. Muller’s the first human to contact the inhabitants of Beta Hydri IV—and he becomes a pariah upon his return to Earth. Silverberg shifts gears dramatically in “Tom O’Bedlam,” in which all of Earth’s governments have collapsed, and the eponymous lead has visions of fantastic crystalline beings that others dismiss as psychotic episodes. The anthology is enhanced by Silverberg’s introductions to each piece, which provide the personal and editorial background to the stories. Lovers of first contact fiction owe it to themselves to pick this up."--Publishers Weekly
Subterranean Press 2022-12 757 pages

The Book of Skulls

Robert Silverberg
From Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author, Robert Silverberg comes the classic: The Book of Skulls. Four friends embark on a cross-country trip in search of a legendary monastery. There, they hope to find the secrets of immortality promised in an ancient manuscript, the Book of Skulls There, they will present themselves-and pay the horrific price demanded. For immortality requires sacrifice. Two victims to balance two survivors. One by suicide, one by murder. Beneath the gaze of grinning skulls, the terror begins. . . .
Three Ravens Publishing 2024-03-10 296 pages

Social mobility in industrial society

Lipset, Seymour Martin,Bendix, Reinhard
"Where else but in America," captains of industry are fond of saying, "could a penniless immigrant like Andrew Carnegie achieve so much?" "Any place else that has reached the same stage of industrial development," is the answer implicit in Social Mobility. The authors conclude, somewhat surprisingly, that is not noticeably easier to pull oneself up by the bootstraps in the "Land of Opportunity" than it is in a number of other countries. The very process of industrialization, with its growing demands for skilled management, prevents an elite in any nation form permanently establishing itself in a position of exclusive superiority. Even in states where neither political institutions nor official ideologies favor upward mobility, increasing industrialization requires a growing--and, consequently, a changing--elite class. The authors are concerned primarily with mobility in the total population, with movements into and out of the working class, though they report extensively on the social origins of business leaders in various countries. They deal, too, with the different values of different societies and with the motivation of the socially mobile. Solidly based on examination of studies in more than ten languages and of raw data from unpublished works, this is the first attempt in thirty years to bring together in one volume what is known of social mobility around the world. Here is the first systematic comparison of mobility patterns in such diverse countries as Sweden and Italy, Great Britain and Japan--a comparison backed by statistics and given added meaning by discussions of the causes and consequences of mobility. The authors analyze in detail the political implications of mobility and they explore the relationship between education and mobility. Their discussions of factors making for success or failure in school, of the role of intelligence in mobility, of the effects on children of growing up in various environments, and of the varying personalities of the mobile and non-mobile bring together the work of both psychologists and sociologists. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1959.
Univ of California Press 2018-10-23 332 pages

Hits & misses

Rich, Simon
'Simon Rich is outrageously, lavishly gifted'- Caitlin Moran'Simon Rich is the funniest writer alive'- Matt Haig'How fabulously funny'- Lauren Laverne'One of my favourite authors'- B J NovakFrom a bitter tell-all by a horse who made a man famous and then got left behind to a gushing magazine profile of one of your favorite World War II dictators, these stories trawl through history to skewer our obsession with fame and fortune - all the way from ancient Babylon to Hollywood. What father-to-be wouldn't feel a little jealous when his baby outstrips his success from the womb? And what happens when a film critic is forced to live in the movies he so cruelly damned?Loved in the UK by celebs, writers and readers alike, from Lauren Laverne to Matt Haig and Caitlin Moran, Simon Rich is back with his funniest and most personal collection of stories to date.
Serpent's Tail 2018 230 pages

Hits and Misses Stories

Simon Rich
In this hilarious collection, a Thurber Prize winner who is "one of the funniest writers in America" chronicles the absurdity of fame and the humanity of failure in a world dominated by social media stars ( Daily Beast ). Simon Rich is an award-winning humorist who draws comparisons to Douglas Adams (the New York Times Book Review ), James Thurber, and P.G. Wodehouse (the Guardian ). With Hits and Misses , he's back with a hilarious collection of stories about dreaming big and falling flat, about ordinary people desperate for stardom and the stars who are bored by having it all. Inspired by Rich's real experiences in Hollywood, Hits and Misses chronicles all the absurdity of fame and success alongside the heartbreaking humanity of failure. From a bitter tell-all by Paul Revere's horse to a gushing magazine profile of World War II's most infamous dictator, these stories roam across time and space to skewer our obsession with making it big -- from the days of ancient Babylon to the age of TMZ.
Little, Brown 2020-03-10 240 pages

The king who refused to die: the Anunnaki and the search for immortality

Sitchin, Zecharia
· Reimagines the Epic of Gilgamesh in the context of Sitchin's discoveries · Details ancient Sumerian sex rituals, the Anunnaki lineage of the gods who lived in Sumer, Anunnaki spacecraft technology, the workings of the Oracle of Anu and Gilgamesh's relationship with the goddess IshtarRetelling the Epic of Gilgamesh in the context of his discoveries about the Anunnaki, Zecharia Sitchin weaves a ta[Bokinfo]
Bear & Company 2013-09-29 250 pages

When time began

Sitchin, Zecharia
Night and day, month after month, year after year, our ancestors dutifully recorded the passage of time on clay tablets, watching the heavens from stage towers and pyramids and from megalithic monuments whose incredible size and precise architecture boggle the mind. . . . Who were the builders of these mysterious structures? What was their purpose? Whose signature is indelibly written on these tim[Bokinfo]
Bear & Co 1994-03-01 416 pages