English Writing

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life - from six weeks to four months to two years - to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel.

This novel had its birth in the death of Martin Amis's closest friend, the incomparable Christopher Hitchens, and it is within that profound and sprawling friendship that Inside Story unfurls. From their early days as young magazine staffers in London, reviewing romantic entanglements and the...

Lost on Purpose is the nonfiction adventure narrative of a former technology executive who took leave of the real world to reinvent himself as a 21st-century mountain man. In October-November 2013, Patrick Taylor crossed the Rocky Mountains alone on foot. He passed through one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 to reach and retrace the route of Lewis and Clark in the winter. The sacrifices - vocationally, financially, emotionally - are measured against the benefits by the author in a refreshingly honest, humorous, and inspirational fashion.

Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.

This booklet from Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a UCLA Extension Writers' Program instructor for nearly a decade, helps authors love the project they most love to hate - writing a book proposal. She has taken the guessing out of the book proposal process. Now, there is no need to take expensive, time-consuming classes or spend hours reading a tome to find the voice and format that will propel an author's idea from a dream to reality.

Collection of writings of George W. May. (From the Preface) "In this incongruous collection of my writings comprising various literary forms, one may trace the development or non-development of my literary power from age 12 to age 90."

In this collection of inspirational writings, novice and experienced practitioners are treated to four key works that rank high in the Zen canon: 101 Zen Stories recounts actual experiences with Zen that span five centuries. The Gateless Gate is a 13th-century collection of mind problems used in the practice of Zen. Ten Bulls is a 12th-century commentary on the stages of awareness that lead to enlightenment. Centering is a 4,000-year-old teaching from India that may have been the source of Zen.

The moving, playful memoir of Hans Rosling, Swedish statistics mastermind, researcher extraordinaire and author of the global bestseller, Factfulness, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund This is a book that contains very few numbers. Instead, it is about meeting people who have opened my...

"Henry Gee presents a pithy, fascinating account of the stages of biological evolution. ... a meditative and friendly listening experience. —AudioFile on A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth Written and read by the award-winning author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: a history...

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan has translated Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts, and now brings its theoretical, meditative, and magical implications to light. He expounds on the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of the Sefirot, souls, and angels. When properly understood, Sefer Yetzirah becomes the instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration and to aid the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers.

Want to sell a screenplay, but figure there’s no chance it’ll ever happen? I mean, you don’t know a soul in Hollywood, right? You don’t have James Cameron on your speed dial. Christopher Nolan isn’t in your yoga class. Quentin Tarantino doesn’t shop at the same Whole Foods that you do. I mean, who’s going to take a chance on you? There’s no way you could ever sell a screenplay. Right? Well…

While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you. That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in. Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers.

In this revealing compendium, acclaimed writer Diana Gabaldon shares her invaluable lessons for creating an immersive reading experience, from evoking a mood to using the power of emotions to communicate physical intimacy. You'll learn the difference between gratuitous sex and genuine encounters that move the story forward and how to handle less-than-savory acts that nevertheless serve a narrative purpose. Gabaldon also notes that sex can be conveyed instead of described.

Do you carry a story inside you—one that stirs beneath the surface, whispering to be told? Are you a story catcher, inspired to gather and tell the stories of this time? Or perhaps you are a story carrier—one who tends to and keeps old stories alive so they may breathe among us once more. If so, you already know that storytelling is more than just words. It’s a vessel for profound alchemy and transformation. With Sacred Storytelling, you’ll be taken on an immersive journey with master storyteller Leah Lamb into the art of conscious storytelling as a living, ancient practice.

“It's quite a life, Patterson's, and this fizzing, funny, often deeply moving memoir is a perfect way to understand the dizzying world of a best-selling writer." —Daily Mail “Damn near addictive. I loved it . . . that Patterson guy can write!” –Ron Howard THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK...

Steven Jencks has planned the perfect crime. Working with two skilled associates, he will hit the Reina, a super-luxury hotel off the coast of Spain, and then walk away with the haul of a lifetime. As the ultimate pro, Jencks has even run his plan through a complex computer simulation to account for every possible variable … Except three. Their names are Annette, Cynthia, and Jenny. And no computer could ever simulate what these three femmes fatales have up their sleeves.

""Required reading for anyone with a head.""—Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff and Fuzz ""Absorbing, incisive. . . Zeller captures the profound human and scientific costs of medicine's neglect of these common conditions that affect millions of people—especially...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “One of the best golf books this century.” —Golf Digest Tom Coyne’s A Course Called Scotland is a heartfelt and humorous celebration of his quest to play golf on every links course in Scotland, the birthplace of the game he loves. For much of his adult life...

Vilhjálmur Stefánsson left New York in April 1908 to begin his journey northwards and into the Arctic Circle. For the next two years, he made his way northwards to Victoria Island to study an isolated group of Inuit who still used primitive tools and had strong Caucasian features, and whom some believed were descended from Vikings. The journey into these remote areas was incredibly tough and being delayed by blizzards Stefánsson, along with his companions, were forced to eat the tongue of a beached whale that had been dead for at least four years.

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get...