Storytelling—how to catch and hold a reader’s interest through artful narration of factual materialWilliam E. Blundell, one of the best writers on one of America's best-written papers—The Wall Street Journal—has put his famous Journal Feature-Writing Seminars into this step-by-step guide for turning out great articles. Filled with expert instruction on a complex art, it provides beginners with a systematic approach to feature writing and deftly teaches old...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter details " how the U.S. business press could miss the most important economic implosion of the past eighty years" (Eric Alterman, media columnist for The Nation ).In this sweeping, incisive post-mortem, Dean Starkman exposes the critical shortcomings that softened coverage in the business press during the mortgage era and the years leading up to the financial collapse of...

Delve into the fascinating world of dirt in this history of culture, cleanliness, and our evolving perceptions of what is and isn't gross.In this engaging and often humorous study of life's imperfections, public health and hygiene authority Terence McLaughlin dissects our attitudes toward the filth that has accompanied society throughout human history. According to him, "dirt" is a matter of opinion.Cultural attitudes about everything from factory smoke to ...

"A lively survey…her research and insights make us conscious of how we, today, use books."—John Sutherland, The New York Times Book ReviewTwo centuries before the advent of radio, television, and motion pictures, books were a cherished form of popular entertainment and an integral component of domestic social life. In this fascinating and vivid history, Abigail Williams explores the ways in which shared reading shaped the lives and literary culture of the e...

A furniture maker and author offers a mix of personal memoir and personal philosophy in a book perfect for craftspersons, artisans, and artists.Woodworking, handicrafts—the rewards of creative practice, bringing something new and meaningful into the world through one's own vision, make us fully alive. Peter Korn explains his search for meaning as an Ivy League-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to ...

In this "utterly fascinating" science memoir, the Nobel Prize–winning author chronicles his revolutionary discovery of a major cause of brain diseases ( The New York Times).In 1997, Stanley B. Prusiner received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on devastating brain diseases. That he was the award's sole recipient was entirely appropriate. His struggle to identify the agent responsible for scrapie and mad cow disease in animals, and...

A riveting account of the United States' second war with England, from the #1 New York Times –bestselling author of The Miracle of Dunkirk .At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the great powers of Western Europe treated the United States like a disobedient child. Great Britain blocked American trade, seized its vessels, and impressed its sailors to serve in the Royal Navy. Ame...

The acclaimed author of Witches, Druids, and King Arthur presents a "lucid, open-minded" cultural history of the Druids as part of British identity (Terry Jones).Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. Historian Ronald Hutton shows how this lack of definite information has allowed succeeding British generations to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton's captiv...

Do you feel overwhelmed trying to revise your novel? Faced with a hot mess of rough draft, maybe you feel confused, unsure of what to fix -- or rather, what to fix first! Editing fiction takes a slightly different mindset than writing the first rough pass of a novel. There are a lot of moving parts in a work of fiction. The trick is to not try and tackle everything at once. ROCK YOUR REVISIONS: A Simple System for Revising Your Novel

Many writers have heard of hooks, and have heard we should use them in our manuscripts as a tool to engage readers and keep them engaged, but what we’re not told is how to identify what a hook is or where to use them to maximize them other than in that key opening line.In this book we’ll look at five specific types of hooks. There are more, but these are the most common, and the most universal, which means by understanding how to craft them, most readers will respon...

Professional editor and author Elizabeth Lyon offers aspiring novelists the guidance and instruction they need to write and edit well-crafted and compelling stories that will stand out from the competition and attract the attention of agents and publishers, including:- Stand-out style techniques, from accessing an authentic voice to applying techniques of "wordsmithing" that transform prose- How to rewrite characterization for dimensionality, a universal need, and theme

Not your same old boring grammar guide! This book is fun, fast, and focused on writing amazing fiction.The world of grammar is huge, but fiction writers don’t need to know all the nuances to write well. In fact, some of the rules you were taught in English class will actually hurt your fiction writing, not help it.Grammar for Fiction Writers won’t teach you things you don’t need to know. It’s all about the grammar that’s relevant to you as you writ...