Our Blog
How Not to Write
In today’s fast-paced workplace-where e-mails fly at lightning speed-precision and brevity are essential for good communication. But most of us just run spell check and hope for the best, because we’ve forgotten the simple grammar rules we learned in school.
In How Not to Write, Terence Denman, an instructor with the U.K.-based Plain English Campaign, sets out the top ten grammar myths and the ten grammar rules to live and work by. Readers will learn how to:
Position prepositions
Chop off unwanted auxiliaries
Root out passivity
Eliminate extraneous adjectives
Punctuate with impunity
With a breezy, wry, and accessible tone that never scolds but always enlightens, How Not to Write is an indispensable guide to clear, concise, and correct language in the workplace.
TERENCE DENMAN is a Cambridge-educated instructor with the U.K.-based Plain English Campaign, an international organization of over 6,000 members in 70 countries that fights for the use of crystal-clear language in business and government communications. (Plus, he’s British, so you know he speaks good English.)
Posted by impart
This Modern House
The time-tested advice you never learned in school for getting back to basics and running a healthy, happy, sustainable household.
In this amazing collection of proven wisdom and practical advice from real vintage textbooks, you’ll find everything you need to know about shopping, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, and managing a household like an adult—whether you’re renting your first apartment or establishing a family home.
- Learn handy home management skills such as:
- Replacing a button
- Planning a dinner party
- Choosing paint colors
- Reducing food waste
- And many, many more
Give your household a happier, healthier future with time-tested tips from the past!
Previously published in 2010 as Home Economics, this fully updated version includes a new introduction and improved advice on cooking and canning.
Posted by impart
Handbook of Style
Do you need to polish your look? Are you ready for a fashion makeover? Authors Francine Maroukian and Sarah Woodruff have approached today’s top hair stylists, skin specialists, fashion designers, and makeup artists for a crash course in personal presentation. The result is The Handbook of Style, an essential reference guide to fashion and beauty.
Jeanine Lobell of Stila Cosmetics explains how to make a smoky eye. Michael Rabinowitz of Le Mystere shows how to buy a bra that fits. Paula Dorf of Paula Dorf Cosmetics teaches you to become your own makeup artist. And Donald J. Pliner of the Donald J. Pliner Collection helps you spot a comfortable and sexy shoe.
With elegant illustrations, this mock-crocodile-covered paperback is a stylish, must-have object in itself. No woman’s bookshelf will be complete without one!
SARAH WOODRUFF is an editor and publishing consultant.
Posted by impart
Good Deed Guide
You’ve heard it all before: People should be nice to one another, treat others with respect, and be good to neighbors. But does any of that still apply to our hectic, harried, post-twentieth-century lifestyles? James and Lisa Grace think so, and in The Good Deed Guide, they show readers dozens of little ways to make a big difference.
From classic good deeds (How to Get a Cat out of a Tree) to modern acts of generosity (How to Be an Organ Donor), this helpful handbook gives you clear, step-by-step directions for becoming a better neighbor, a better friend, and a better citizen. You’ll learn how to make a difference in your own backyard (How to Plant a Tree) as well as while in town (How to Help a Person Cross the Street). And you’ll master the more complex activities with the help of step-by-step full-color illustrations. People everywhere are realizing that life is short, and being good to one another is the best way to make life enjoyable. Go ahead-make a difference.
JAMES and LISA GRACE are writers and all-around good people. They live outside Boston, Massachusetts, with their three children.
Posted by impart
Fine Waters
Water is indeed everywhere-especially bottled water. High-end restaurants now have water lists in addition to wine lists, water bars are opening up around the globe, and gourmet markets are selling dozens of different varieties of domestic and imported bottled waters. Consumers are beginning to recognize that bottled water, like wine, has a unique identity that is defined by its origin.
Fine Waters introduces readers to the epicurean delights of water, sharing the ins and outs of the characteristics that provide various waters with their unique flavors, as well as recommended food pairings, stemware suggestions, and optimum serving temperatures for enjoying both still and sparkling waters. The book also provides tasting notes for more than 100 of the world’s best bottled waters. Produced in full color, with photographs throughout, Fine Waters is the first guide to this up-and-coming food trend.
DR. MICHAEL MASCHA is a food anthropologist, culinary expert, and proprietor of finewaters.com.
Posted by impart
Field Guide to Luck
Take Control of Your Destiny!
From the good luck provided by shamrocks, rabbits’s feet, and horseshoes to the misfortune caused by broken mirrors, black cats, and umbrellas opened indoors, our lives are filled with signs and superstitions that guide our destiny and influence our fate.
Fortunately, Field Guide to Luck can help you recognize dozens of influential charms, dates, sayings, and symbols wherever you encounter them. Learn what objects are on your side, which practices are best avoided, and where these curious beliefs come from. This indispensable guide reveals their fascinating origins and offers tips for putting them into practice. With Lady Luck on your side and a lucky penny in your pocket, you’re sure to lead a charmed life!
Posted by impart
