True, dropping a well-placed swear can make even the worst situations seem better, but sometimes a "fudge!" or "sugar!" can be equally satisfying-and won't land you in trouble. The Craptastic Guide to Pseudo-swearing offers new, creative, and clean ways to express how fetchin' mad some son of a biscuit made you. Featuring a variety of games, instructions, and helpful hints, Craptastic proves there are endless cussing alternatives for any rassafrackin' situation. The book offers a dictionary of terms, broken down into craptacular categories including Classics, Sexy Talk, and Safe for Church. Toss in games like Cross-words Puzzle and Play It Safe Hangman, tidbits about noteworthy curses in pop culture, plus a plethora of other interactive features, and you have a book that will turn anyone into a prodigious fake curser in no time.

DIVWith a chatty voice and sarcastic style, The Faker's Guide to the Classics condenses the great—but long and often complicated—novels, plays, and poems into bite-size nuggets of info that are easy to digest, cutting out the bloated analysis and nauseating debate of other reading guides. From Anna Karenina and Beowulf to Ulysses and Wuthering Heights, each of the 100 books profiled here is a classic that everyone talks about but only hardcore lit majors have actually read. Now, with The Faker's Guide to the Classics, you, too, can: Reminisce about books you were supposed to read for class but didn't; fudge literary discussions at fancy parties; impress a date with your incredible knowledge and wit; and cut through the ivory tower of world letters to read like a ninja! Each entry contains: a quick and dirty narrative description of plot points and overall story, including significant twists and surprise endings, told with humorous brevity; famous quotes from each work, accompanied by smartass responses; the original cover or an illustration conveying the work’s tone (or lack thereof). Brief author bios, including misdeeds and scandals, add illuminating and occasionally disgusting background to each work. All of the text appears in simple, contemporary English, so it’s easy to understand—and short enough to tweet. With this must-have guide, there’s no more need to worry whether a reference to Miss Havisham is an insult or to wonder what happened to Moby-Dick. Not reading the classics has never been easier! /div

A tribute to Bob Ross-the soft-spoken artist known for painting happy clouds, mountains, and trees -- Happy Little Accidents culls his most wise and witty words into one delightful package. Ross has captivated us for years with the magic that takes place on his canvas in twenty-six television minutes-all while dispensing little branches of wisdom. His style and encouraging words are a form of therapy for the weary, but with Bob it is always about more than painting. There is a hidden depth within his easy chatter, another layer to everything he says. When he talks about painting, he's using it as a metaphor for life! Happy Little Accidents: The Wit and Wisdom of Bob Ross opens with an introduction and brief biography of Ross, followed by a collection of Ross's greatest quotes and most majestic works of art. Relax. Unwind. Be inspired.

The most trusted guide to the world of children's publishing! If you write or illustrate for young readers with the hope of getting published, the 2014 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market is the trusted resource you need. Now in its 26th edition, CWIM is the definitive publishing guide for anyone who seeks to write or illustrate for kids and young adults. Inside you'll find more than 650 listings for children's book markets (publishers, agents, magazines, and more)--including a point of contact, how to properly submit your work, and what categories each market accepts. You'll also find: • Interviews with some of today's hottest authors and illustrators, including author R.L. Stine (the Goosebumps series), author Marie Lu (Legend), author Beth Revis (Across the Universe), and illustrator Debbie Ridpath (I'm Bored, written by Michael Ian Black). • The ever-popular "First Books" article, where debut writers and illustrators explain what they did right and how you can follow in their footsteps to success. • In-depth articles on picture books, query letters, novel voice, author platform, the status of indie-publishing, literary agents, and more. Includes "New Agent Spotlights"--profiles on literary reps actively seeking new writers of children's books right now. "I buy a copy of Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market every single year. It's the definitive, must-have resource for children's publishing." --Jesse Klausmeier, author of the picture book Open This Little Book "Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market is a great resource for artists and writers who are ready to share their talent with the world." --Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries

From Anna Karenina and Beowulf to Ulysses and Wuthering Heights, SnarkNotes condenses the great (but long and complicated) novels, plays, and poems of world lit into bite-size nuggets, cutting out the bloated analysis and nauseating debate of other reading guides. Each of the 100 books profiled is a classic that everyone knows but only hardcore lit majors have actually read. Now you, too, can: Blather about books you were supposed to read for class but didn’t; fudge literary discussions at fancy parties; impress a date with your knowledge and wit; and slice through the ivory tower to read like a ninja. Each entry contains: a quick and dirty narrative description of plot, including twists and surprise endings, told with humorous brevity; famous quotes accompanied by smartass responses; and the original cover or an illustration conveying the work’s tone (or lack thereof). Brief author bios—including misdeeds and scandals—add illuminating and occasionally disgusting background to each work. All of the text appears in simple, contemporary English, so it’s easy to understand and short enough to tweet. With this must-have guide, never worry again whether a reference to Miss Havisham is an insult or wonder what happened to Moby-Dick. Not reading the classics has never been easier!

Based on the blog, this clever book of snarky commentary is told from the imagined world of "Suri Cruise."

The History of English provides an accessible introduction to the changes that English has undergone from its Indo-European beginnings to the present day. The text looks at the major periods in the history of English, and provides for each a socio-historical context, an overview of the relevant major linguistic changes, and also focuses on an area of current research interest, either in sociolinguistics or in literary studies. Exercises and activities that allow the reader to get 'hands-on' with different stages of the language, as well as with the concepts of language change, are also included. By explaining language change with close reference to literary and other textual examples and emphasising the integral link between a language and its society, this text is especially useful for students of literature as well as linguistics.

"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.

The classic thriller about a hostile foreign power infiltrating American politics: “Brilliant . . . wild and exhilarating.” —The New Yorker A war hero and the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sgt. Raymond Shaw is keeping a deadly secret—even from himself. During his time as a prisoner of war in North Korea, he was brainwashed by his Communist captors and transformed into a deadly weapon—a sleeper assassin, programmed to kill without question or mercy at his captors’ signal. Now he’s been returned to the United States with a covert mission: to kill a candidate running for US president . . . This “shocking, tense” and sharply satirical novel has become a modern classic, and was the basis for two film adaptations (San Francisco Chronicle). “Crammed with suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Condon is wickedly skillful.” —Time

During the Cold War, freedom of expression was vaunted as liberal democracy’s most cherished possession—but such freedom was put in service of a hidden agenda. In The Cultural Cold War, Frances Stonor Saunders reveals the extraordinary efforts of a secret campaign in which some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom in the West were working for or subsidized by the CIA—whether they knew it or not. Called "the most comprehensive account yet of the [CIA’s] activities between 1947 and 1967" by the New York Times, the book presents shocking evidence of the CIA’s undercover program of cultural interventions in Western Europe and at home, drawing together declassified documents and exclusive interviews to expose the CIA’s astonishing campaign to deploy the likes of Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Lowell, George Orwell, and Jackson Pollock as weapons in the Cold War. Translated into ten languages, this classic work—now with a new preface by the author—is "a real contribution to popular understanding of the postwar period" (The Wall Street Journal), and its story of covert cultural efforts to win hearts and minds continues to be relevant today.