What a Wonderful Phrase


Book Description

Have you ever wondered why we talkabout 'buttering someone up' or wherethe phrase 'it's raining cats and dogs'actually comes from? What does it meanto 'comb the giraffe' in France or to 'weara cat on your head' in Japan?Also available This beautifully illustrated collection of curious phrases from around the world is a voyage of cultural discovery.




The Parents' Phrase Book


Book Description

"Children can be like a foreign country, and this is the phrase book and guide book that adults need to navigate that landscape sensitively and effectively." - Catherine Connors, Editor-in-Chief, Disney Interactive Family "The Parents' Phrase Book shares [Whit's] helpful insight into parenting in a way that is thought-provoking, heartwarming, and always entertaining." - Ed Sanders, TV Host (Owner's Manual, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) "Whit is...high on my list of people to ask for advice if I wasn't sure how to deal with a parenting issue." - Matt Blum, Editor-in-Chief, GeekDad.com "The Parents' Phrase Book is the go-to guide...for the wild rollercoaster known as parenting." - Mike Adamick, Author of Dad's Book of Awesome Projects; MikeAdamick.com "No matter how much we study and experiment, our best efforts as parents get lost in translation.... This book is the closest thing we have to a 'Dead Sea Scrolls' for parenting." - Charlie Capen, Author of The Guide to Baby Sleep Positions; HowToBeADad.com What do you say when your child gets caught in a fib? Or asks you where babies come from? With The Parents' Phrase Book, you no longer have to worry about coming up with the right response on the spot. Written by Whit Honea, a parenting expert whose advice has appeared on BabyCenter, Babble, and the Huffington Post, this valuable guide provides you with the key language and tactics you'll need to deal with a variety of parenting situations. Inside, Honea explains why his approach quickly resolves issues and why so many of the parenting phrases you'll hear on the playground actually encourage your child to misbehave. From tackling sibling rivalry to handling bullies at school, The Parents' Phrase Book will help you connect with your child and address even the toughest parenting dilemmas.




The World in a Phrase


Book Description

Starting with the ancient Chinese and ending with contemporary Europeans and Americans, The World in a Phrase tells the story of the aphorism through spirited and amusing biographies of some of its greatest practitioners, including Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker; great French aphorists like Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, and Chamfort; philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein; as well as prophets and sages like the Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus. In our modern age, The World in a Phrase explores how aphorisms still retain the power to instigate and inspire, enlighten and enrage, entertain and edify. James Geary is the author of The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses. He lives in London with his wife and three children. "James Geary's celebration of the smallest-and sometimes wisest-of literary forms. Geary defines the characteristics of aphorisms and discusses their history and their role in his life, and shares the work of renowned aphorists from Buddha to Dr. Seuss."-Associated Press




What a Wonderful Word


Book Description

Have you ever wished there was a word for friends who are like family to you, or for the way you hesitate when you've forgotten someone's name? Did you know there was a special word for the distance a reindeer can travel before needing the toilet? Or for when you search for something in the water using only your feet? This hand-picked collection of untranslatable worlds from all over the world celebrates the magic of language, with gorgeous original artwork and fascinating facts about each word and the culture it comes from.




The Elements of Eloquence


Book Description

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE ETYMOLOGICON. 'An informative but highly entertaining journey through the figures of rhetoric ... Mark Forsyth wears his considerable knowledge lightly. He also writes beautifully.' David Marsh, Guardian. Mark Forsyth presents the secret of writing unforgettable phrases, uncovering the techniques that have made immortal such lines as 'To be or not to be' and 'Bond. James Bond.' In his inimitably entertaining and witty style, he takes apart famous quotations and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or John Lennon. Crammed with tricks to make the most humdrum sentiments seem poetic or wise, The Elements of Eloquencereveals how writers through the ages have turned humble words into literary gold - and how you can do the same.




The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book


Book Description

A reference to help business leaders and human resources managers dissolve office disputes and foster dialogue with employees. Ouch! Did I really say that? What was I thinking? It’s uncomfortable to go into a tenuous situation blind and fumbling for words. That’s why people run from conflict. Rather than avoid these situations, The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book can help you prepare for and embrace them. Sometimes you just need a prompt to say the right thing, and that’s what this book will do. Using it you’ll learn: Positive things to say when initiating or responding to difficult conversations and situations How to find and craft language to start a sensitive conversation The right words to positively influence the situation The more you practice, the better you’ll become. Having this book at your fingertips will give you the confidence that the words will come out right. The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book is a natural complement to the author’s previous book, The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook. “Barbara and Cornelia take the fear out of managing conflict and difficult conversations.” —Adam Bowman, MA. PHR “A ready resource on how to talk differently to get different results when managing conflict. It is a must have for the manager or HR professional.” —Marsha Hughes-Rease, MSOD, PCC, CAPT/NC/USN/Ret., Quo Vadis Coaching and Consulting, LLC




Why I Write


Book Description

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times




Perfect Phrases for Customer Service: Hundreds of Tools, Techniques, and Scripts for Handling Any Situation


Book Description

Tools for pleasing even the most demanding customers A satisfied customer is a loyal customer, and in today's supercompetitive business economy few things are as crucial to a company's bottom line as the quality of its customer service. This latest title in the popular Perfect Phrases series is just the thing for customer service employees and those who train and manage them. Perfect Phrases for Customer Service gets you quickly up and running with everything you need to keep customers happy and loyal, including: Clear explanations of the reasons for difficult customer behaviors Proven tools and techniques for successfully handling even the most cantankerous customers 101 dialogues and scripts organized according to types of difficult behaviors, usable as is or as part of a training program, and easily tailored to any industry and company culture For more information, visit www.customerservicezone.com




Nonrequired Reading


Book Description

"Unquestionably one of the great living European poets. She's accessible and deeply human and a joy--though it is a dark kind of joy--to read. . . . She is a poet to live with." —Robert Hass, The Washington Post Book World Wislawa Szymborska's poems are admired around the world, and her unsparing vision, tireless wit, and deep sense of humanity are cherished by countless readers. Unknown to most of them, however, Szymborska, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, also worked for several decades as a columnist, reviewing a wide variety of books under the unassuming title "Nonrequired Reading." As readers of her poems would expect, the short prose pieces collected here are anything but ordinary. Reflecting the author's own eclectic tastes and interests, the pretexts for these ruminations range from books on wallpapering, cooking, gardening, and yoga, to more lofty volumes on opera and world literature. Unpretentious yet incisive, these charming pieces are on a par with Szymborska's finest lyrics, tackling the same large and small questions with a wonderful curiosity.




Exactly What to Say


Book Description

Phil M. Jones has trained more than two million people across five continents and over fifty countries in the lost art of spoken communication. In Exactly What to Say, he delivers the tactics you need to get more of what you want.