In an innovative critique of traditional approaches to autobiography, Anne E. Goldman convincingly demonstrates that ethnic women can and do speak for themselves, even in the most unlikely contexts. Citing a wide variety of nontraditional texts—including the cookbooks of Nuevo Mexicanas, African American memoirs of midwifery and healing, and Jewish women's histories of the garment industry—Goldman illustrates how American women have asserted their ethnic identities and made their voices heard over and sometimes against the interests of publishers, editors, and readers. While the dominant culture has interpreted works of ethnic literature as representative of a people rather than an individual, the working women of this study insist upon their own agency in narrating rich and complicated self-portraits.

Three centuries of English idioms—their unusual origins and unexpected interpretations To pay through the nose. Raining cats and dogs. By hook or by crook. Curry favor. Drink like a fish. Eat crow. We hear such phrases every day, but this book is the first truly all-encompassing etymological guide to both their meanings and origins. Spanning more than three centuries, Take My Word for It is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind window into the surprisingly short history of idioms in English. Widely known for his studies of word origins, Anatoly Liberman explains more than one thousand idioms, both popular and obscure, occurring in both American and British standard English and including many regional expressions. The origins, and even the precise meaning, of most idioms are often obscure and lost in history. Based on a critical analysis of countless conjectures, with exact, in-depth references (rare in the literature on the subject), Take My Word for It provides not only a large corpus of idiomatic phrases but also a vast bibliography. Detailed indexes and a thesaurus make the content accessible at a glance, and Liberman’s introduction and conclusion add historical dimensions. The result of decades of research by a leading authority, this book is both instructive and absorbing for scholars and general readers, who won’t find another resource as comparable in scope or based on data even remotely as exhaustive.

"Don't Take My Word for It" encourages people to question. The author doesn't want anyone to take his word for anything. Jenkins takes theology to a newly personal level by challenging the thoughts that have been put in our heads as we "Buy the Can" from our own teachers and preachers. This book is intended to be used as a Thought Provoker for its reader. It is not intended to start an argument or persuade anyone to think in a certain way or believe a certain thing. Its purpose is to cause a more thorough examination of the details of one's faith. It is written for Ordinary Everyday Christians who love and trust God, and want to live more in His way, to help examine their faith and strengthen it in the knowledge that their beliefs can be built on the singular foundation of Scripture. Remember that the bottom line of every desire of the writer is to help all that read this book, himself included, to more clearly and completely digest the Scriptures and apply them to our everyday lives. It is the goal of the writer that this book stir the hearts of the readers to better, and more personal interpretation of the Bible, and to more accurate handling of the Word of God so as to be properly prepared for all good works. When talking about Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses at the door, Dr. Walter Martin, the "Bible Answer Man," said of these cults that "If their faith could not stand close examination it should not stand at all." And while any of us may disagree with Dr. Martin on any single point of doctrine, we know that he believed that faith untried was not true faith. And let's all face it, if believers learned to "rightly divide the Word of Truth" there would be no cults, no Islam and far less atheists. Use this book to look into the details of your faith and don't take the author's word for anything, but do your own examination of the Scriptures and see what you believe, what God would have you believe, and what can be done to bring those two into greater agreement. It is not to be used by Academics or Atheists, as it would do little to further their thought processes or causes, unless they want to get saved.

Written with humor and wit, Take My Word For It is a collection of original poetry divided into five sections: Critters, Limericks, Feathered Friends, Haiku, and Commonalities. The verses, composed of true facts, enable readers to learn in a delightful way and tickle the funny bone of youngsters and teenagers as well as parents and teachers who read the poems aloud.

"Australia's king of young adult fiction" The Australian Lisa Morris could be the girl next door. She could be your cousin. She could be sitting behind you in class. She could be you. But Lisa, cool and beautiful Lisa, remote and private Lisa, has more going on in her life than anyone imagines. Only her journal knows the truth about her life. Only her journal - and you. Fans of Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins and John Flanagan will love John Marsden.

The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. Yet the history of the world's great languages has been very little told. Empires of the Word, by the wide-ranging linguist Nicholas Ostler, is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing innovations in education, culture, and diplomacy devised by speakers of Sumerian and its successors in the Middle East, right up to the Arabic of the present day; the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions; the charmed progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the engaging self-regard of Greek; the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English. Besides these epic ahievements, language failures are equally fascinating: Why did German get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed's Arabic? Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, though the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India? As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples; and, for all the recent tehnical mastery of English, nothing guarantees our language's long-term preeminence. The language future, like the language past, will be full of surprises.