"Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book." —Los Angeles Times

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson 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

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For those who have despaired of ever learning a foreign language, here, finally, is a book that will make the words stick. At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He did not learn them in school -- who does? -- rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources. In Fluent Forever Wyner reveals what he has discovered.

Grandma Lupita tells her granddaughter Rose and Rose's friend Terry the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a miracle that occurred near Mexico City in 1531. Includes facts about the event and its influence.

"A series of reflections on the author's experiences learning a new language and living abroad, in a dual-language edition"--Provided by publisher.

"Ever wonder what "nonbinary" or "gender nonconforming" really means? Why would someone choose to identify that way? And how the heck do you use "they/them" pronouns for a singular person - isn't it supposed to be plural? This charming and disarming guide promises to unpack all these questions and more, with a fun, visual infographic approach"--

An eye-opening and courageous memoir that explores what learning a new language can teach us about distant worlds and, ultimately, ourselves.

After miraculously surviving a serious illness, Katherine Rich found herself at an impasse in her career as a magazine editor. She spontaneously accepted a freelance writing assignment to go to India, where she found herself thunderstruck by the place and the language, and before she

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Get ready to unlock the secrets of Japanese language and culture! Chiba and Sato will have you speaking and reading Japanese without hours of memorizing vocab or copying out Japanese script. You'll be ready to jump into basic conversational Japanese in no time! -- adapted from back of book

A Aarón Soñador le encanta escuchar historias y sueña con, algún día, escribirlas él mismo. Pero cuando intenta leer, todas las letras se mezclan y le parecen unos garabatos, así que no tarda en darse cuenta de que tiene más dificultades para aprender que sus compañeros. El día que su maestra pide que cada niño de la clase escriba una historia, Aarón no logra hacerlo. Justo cuando pensaba que ser un gran escritor estaba fuera de su alcance,...

Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

"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"-- " ... How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is the author's manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities...