Adventure English Language

This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.

The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion tells the earlier history of Middle-earth, recounting the events of the First and Second Ages, and introducing some of the key characters, such as Galadriel, Elrond, Elendil and the Dark Lord, Sauron. The tales of The Silmarillion are set...

Daniel Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977 - with his wife and three young children - intending to convert them. What he found was a language that defies all existing linguistic theories and reflects a way of life that evades contemporary understanding. The Pirahã have no counting system and no fixed terms for color. They have no concept of war or of personal property.

In an alternate London in 1923, one girl accidentally breaks the tenuous truce between dragons and humans in this sweeping debut and epic retelling of Bletchley Park steeped in language, class, and forbidden romance. Perfect for teen fans of Fourth Wing and Babel. * New York Times Bestseller *...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Award-winning actor Alan Alda tells the fascinating story of his quest to learn how to communicate better, and to teach others to do the same. With his trademark humor and candor, he explores how to develop empathy as the key factor. “Invaluable.”—Deborah...

Did you know that over 220 million people around the world speak French? Now is the time to join them and tap into the countless opportunities that come with mastering this widely spoken language.

A gifted but idiosyncratic teenager must unlock fiendish puzzles, pore through occult texts, and unearth buried clues—all while reckoning with the outside world in ways she never has before—as she pursues an ancient secret in this brainteasing, YA/adult conspiracy thriller. When Arizona...

Lewis Carroll's surreal fantasy masterpiece—minus the part where you're not sure if any of this is supposed to make sense. What's a Sweary Classic? The complete, unabridged original story—same plot, same characters, same emotional devastation—just translated into modern, hilarious, sweary language that doesn't require a literature degree to understand. Think: all the absurdist wonder, zero Victorian torture. Alice is having the most boring afternoon of her life when she spots a talking white rabbit in a waistcoat sprinting past her, panicking about being late. Being a curious kid with...

Horseback heresy: farts, fornication, and fraud on the road to redemption (spoiler: there is no redemption for these fools). A ragtag crew of 29 pilgrims—knights, nuns, corrupt friars, and shit-stained gutter rats—trudge from a London tavern to Canterbury Cathedral, swapping tales of lust, greed, revenge, and fart jokes. The Wife of Bath brags about her five husbands like a 14th-century Tinder pro. The Miller pukes out a blackout-drunk story. The Pardoner hawks fake relics made from pig shit while preaching against greed. The Summoner peddles hellfire pardons for silver. The stakes? One...

When you can’t hear…death comes silently. Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at a university for the Deaf in London, England. The murder investigation coincides with a deadly flu virus outbreak, resulting in the university being quarantined from the outside world. When more Deaf students are murdered, it becomes clear there is a serial killer operating within the sealed-off university. A chilling cat-and-mouse game evolves as the unknown killer targets Valerie and the virus claims more lives. A stunning, claustrophobic, “...

Learn the craft of creating a page-turning romantasy novel in this easy-to-follow guide from writing expert and renowned author of The Savior’s Series, Jenna Moreci. In How to Write Romantasy, Moreci takes you from your first kernel of inspiration through the resolution of your novel, ensuring...

Combined into one volume, this is the definitive collection of Tolkien’s five acclaimed modern classic ‘fairie’ tales in the vein of The Hobbit, read by Derek Jacobi. The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked...

J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on the Second Age of Middle-earth, collected for the first time in one volume. J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a ‘dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told’. And for many years readers would need to be...

Martha Barnette has spent two decades as the co-host of A Way with Words, lauded by Mary Norris in The New Yorker as “a virtual treasure house” and “‘Car Talk’ for Lexiphiles.” Over that time, she’s developed a keen sense of what fascinates people about language. They are curious about etymology and revel in slang, are surprised by regional vocabulary and celebrate linguistic diversity. Idioms both puzzle and delight word lovers, and they are eager to share family neologisms and that weird phrase Grandma always used to say.

One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year THE TRUE BUT UNLIKELY STORIES OF LIVES DEVOTED―ABSURDLY! MELANCHOLICALLY! BEAUTIFULLY!―TO THE RUSSIAN CLASSICS No one who read Elif Batuman's first article (in the journal n+1) will ever forget it. "Babel in California" told the true story of...

A delightful, delicious, and best-selling account of the gustatory pleasures to be found throughout France, from the beloved author of A Year in Provence. The French celebrate food and drink more than any other people, and Peter Mayle shows us just how contagious their enthusiasm can be. We...

What can one Taino boy do against a man determined to conquer an empire?Horses, sailing ships, Mayans and conquistadors... Unbroken has been hailed as “a great read for all ages!” Felipe Ferrer's young life is turned upside down when Hernan Cortes rides into the Ferrer stable yard. Cortes, planning his expedition to Mexico, is in desperate need of horses. When Felipe’s father refuses to sell his prize stallion, Majesty, Cortes cheats him out of the horse and sends Ferrer to prison. To save Felipe from the same fate his father arranges for the boy to go along with Cortes as Majesty’s...

Herman Melville's epic tale of obsession and revenge—minus the 80-page detour about whale taxonomy. What's a Sweary Classic? The complete original story—same plot, same characters, same emotional devastation—just translated into modern, hilarious, sweary language that doesn't require a literature degree to understand. Think: all the high-seas drama, zero Victorian torture. Ishmael's having a rough time on land, so he decides to sign up for a whaling voyage because apparently getting on a boat with a bunch of strangers to hunt massive ocean predators is excellent therapy. Everything ...

You didn’t pick up a book. You picked up a Node—a pocket doorway into a set of worlds where stories don’t describe reality. They shape it. In Sector Folio-7, a catastrophic cascade has begun. Worlds are bleeding into each other, rules are breaking, and a city built from living pages is starting to collapse from the inside. Streets repeat out of order. People forget who they are mid-sentence. And “plot holes”—literal voids—open in the ground and swallow entire blocks. Mara Keene is a Scriptor tasked with keeping this place intact. She enters the City of Echoing Pages to recover...

20 years lost at sea. One pissed-off god. 108 suitors about to regret everything. What's a Sweary Classic? The complete original story—same plot, same characters, same emotional devastation—just translated into modern, hilarious, sweary language that doesn't require a literature degree to understand. Think: all the epic monsters and homecoming drama, zero "rosy-fingered dawn" repetition. Odysseus pissed off Poseidon by blinding his son the Cyclops, so now he's stuck bouncing between monsters, witches, and horny goddesses for 10 years after the Trojan War. His crew keeps dying stupid ...