Making a Point


Book Description

David Crystal ends his triumphant trilogy about the English language by looking at the way we punctuate and why.




Making a Point


Book Description

The triumphant concluding volume in David Crystal's classic trilogy on the English language combines the first history of English punctuation with a complete guide on how to use it. Behind every punctuation mark lies a thousand stories. The punctuation of English, marked with occasional rationality, is founded on arbitrariness and littered with oddities. For a system of a few dozen marks it generates a disproportionate degree of uncertainty and passion, inspiring organizations like the Apostrophe Protection Society and sending enthusiasts, correction-pens in hand, in a crusade against error across the United States. Professor Crystal leads us through this minefield with characteristic wit, clarity, and commonsense. In David Crystal's Making a Point, he gives a fascinating account of the origin and progress of every kind of punctuation mark over one and a half millennia and offers sound advice on how punctuation may be used to meet the needs of every occasion and context.




The Making Point


Book Description

Cedric was an Army Ranger when he stepped on an IED in a bomb-rigged village in Afghanistan. Becoming a double amputee could have been his breaking point. Instead, he turned it into his Making Point, and is now a world-class motivational speaker and endurance athlete. He shows you that if he can achieve the unattainable, then so can you.




Suppose a Sentence


Book Description

A captivating meditation on the power of the sentence by the author of Essayism, a 2018 New Yorker book of the year. In Suppose a Sentence, Brian Dillon, whom John Banville has called “a literary flâneur in the tradition of Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin,” has written a sequel of sorts to Essayism, turning his attention to the oblique and complex pleasures of the sentence. A series of essays prompted by a single sentence—from Shakespeare to James Baldwin, John Ruskin to Joan Didion—this new book explores style, voice, and language, along with the subjectivity of reading. Both an exercise in practical criticism and a set of experiments or challenges, Suppose a Sentence is a polemical and personal reflection on the art of the sentence in literature.




The Point Is


Book Description

In this engaging and provocative book, Lee Eisenberg, bestselling author of The Number, dares to tackle nothing less than what it takes to find enduring meaning and purpose in life. He explains how from a young age, each of us is compelled to take memories of events and relationships and shape them into a one-of-a-kind personal narrative. In addition to sharing his own pivotal memories (some of them moving, some just a shade embarrassing), Eisenberg presents striking research culled from psychology and neuroscience, and draws on insights from a pantheon of thinkers and great writers-Tolstoy, Freud, Joseph Campbell, Virginia Woolf, among others. We also hear from men and women of all ages who are wrestling with the demands of work and family, ever in search of fulfillment and satisfaction. It all adds up to a fascinating story, delightfully told, one that goes straight to the heart of how we explain ourselves to ourselves-in other words, who we are and why.




Making Steel


Book Description

Making Steel chronicles the rise and fall of American steel by focusing on the fateful decisions made at the world's once largest steel mill at Sparrows Point, Maryland. Mark Reutter examines the business, production, and daily lives of workers as corporate leaders became more interested in their own security and enrichment than in employees, community, or innovative technology. This edition features 26 pages of photos, an author's preface, and a new chapter on the devastating effects of Bethlehem Steel's bankruptcy titled "The Discarded American Worker."




Making Your Point


Book Description

Making Your Point provides the secrets of sharper, better, and more influential speaking and writing tips from leading strategic communications expert David Bartlett. We all need to speak, write and communicate more effectively. Dave Bartlett shares his decades of experience as a communications strategist in an accessible, easy-to-apply guide to help anybody—students, business people, public speakers, or politicians—improve their speaking and presenting skills. The tricks are as old as Aristotle and as new as The Daily Show: Know how to appeal to each specific audience through research and thoughtful planning, and then use appropriate content and style to deliver a memorable message. Bartlett's advice is common sense backed by dozens of real-world examples. Learn: -How to devise a simple strategic goal for every interview, meeting, or speech -How to deliver your message in a way that will appeal to your audience -How to make your messages positive, concrete, and empathetic -How to use blogs, podcasts, and Web sites like YouTube to promote your message -How to reach even the largest audiences one person at a time




Making Changes from This Point Forward


Book Description

Many of us have been so preoccupied day by day with our usual routines at whatever age of work, play, school, domestic activity, worry, and hurry among unforeseen surprises setting us back and off the track of our desired goals. Sometimes that causes even more problems and setbacks. Preventing and/or offsetting those possibilities are innovated in this material through a process of reviewing what we didnt know, were or werent responsible for, what our path has been, what our detrimental habits and fantasies were and are, how we missed our chances, how our attitudes have formed, and whether we made necessary changes as we see are necessary now for correcting our errors or blunders of the past. Its all designed to help make our future better and survivable.




A Compendium of Lace-Making - Bobbin, Filet, Needle-Point, Netting, Tatting and Much More - Four Volumes in One


Book Description

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to lace and lace making, with information on bobbin, filet, needle-point, netting, tatting, and much more besides. Written in plain language and full of useful tips, “A Compendium of Lace-Making” is highly recommended for those with little previous experience. Although old, the information contained within this book is timeless, and will be of considerable utility to the modern reader. Contents include: “Bobbin Lace”, “ Bobbin Lace—The Foundation Stitches”, “Bobbin Lace—'Sewing' and 'Bars'”, “Bobbin Lace—'Raised Work'; 'Meshes'”, “Bobbin Lace—'Fillings'”, “Bobbin Lace Torchons”, “Bobbin Lace—Motifs”, “Ecclesiastical Lace”, “Filet Lace”, “Needle-Point Lace”, “Needle-Run Lace”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on lace.




Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare


Book Description

From the Master of Horror comes the first gripping book in the twelve book New York Times bestselling Saga of Darren Shan. Start the tale from the beginning in the book that inspired the feature film The Vampire's Assistant and petrified devoted fans worldwide. A young boy named Darren Shan and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the Cirque Du Freak, a wonderfully gothic freak show featuring weird, frightening half human/half animals who interact terrifyingly with the audience. In the midst of the excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognizes that one of the performers-- Mr. Crepsley-- is a vampire! Stever remains after the show finishes to confront the vampire-- but his motives are surprising! In the shadows of a crumbling theater, a horrified Darren eavesdrops on his friend and the vampire, and is witness to a monstrous, disturbing plea. As if by destiny, Darren is pulled to Mr. Crepsley and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires. This is the beginning of Darren's story.