Though there is a contingent of linguists who fight the fact, our language is always changing -- not only through slang, but sound, syntax, and words' meanings as well. Debunking the myth of "pure" standard English, tackling controversial positions, and eschewing politically correct arguments, linguist John McWhorter considers speech patterns and regional accents to demonstrate just how the changes do occur. Wielding reason and humor, McWhorter ultimately explains why we must embrace these changes, ultimately revealing our American English in all its variety, expressiveness, and power.

For those who’ve never read the Bible and for those who’ve read it too much. Lacey’s “dangerously real” retelling of Scripture vividly demonstrates that the Bible is packed full of stories, poems, and images that resonate with the big issues of today. This fresh paraphrase-come-running-commentary brings the text alive: Bible stories are retold as mini blockbusters; psalms as song lyrics; epistles as emails; Revelation as seen through a virtual reality headset. Out with stale religious terms, here’s a “Bible” which talks today’s language—gritty, earthy, and witty. Enough starting at Genesis with good intentions and getting lost in Leviticus-Lacey succeeds in revitalizing a classic work by focusing on the big picture: fast-forwarding through the “slow-moving” bits with pace, passion, and energy to make the Bible a page turner. Lacey’s tour de force was created during a remarkable personal journey through terminal cancer: the stuff Bible stories are made of. This life-experience injects Lacey’s take on Scripture with authenticity and authority—resonating with Bible characters who also wrestled with the big questions. Purist alert: This is not THE Bible (capital B)… but it might just get you reaching for one.

A "Bible" that talks today's language - gritty, earthy, witty - A "Bible" for those who've never read the Bible, and for those who've read it too much.

What's the word on the street? Find out as Elmo visits many fun places in his neighborhood and learns new words.

From the hard-boiled detective stories of Dashiell Hammett to the novels of Claude McKay, The Word on the Streets examines a group of writers whose experimentation with the vernacular argues for a rethinking of American modernism—one that cuts across traditional boundaries of class, race, and ethnicity. The dawn of the modernist era witnessed a transformation of popular writing that demonstrated an experimental practice rooted in the language of the streets. Emerging alongside more recognized strands of literary modernism, the vernacular modernism these writers exhibited lays bare the aesthetic experiments inherent in American working-class and ethnic language, forging an alternative pathway for American modernist practice. Brooks Hefner shows how writers across a variety of popular genres—from Gertrude Stein and William Faulkner to humorist Anita Loos and ethnic memoirist Anzia Yezierska—employed street slang to mount their own critique of genteel realism and its classist emphasis on dialect hierarchies, the result of which was a form of American experimental writing that resonated powerfully across the American cultural landscape of the 1910s and 1920s.

Growing up on the rough streets of Newark, New Jersey, Rameck, George,and Sampson could easily have followed their childhood friends into drug dealing, gangs, and prison. But when a presentation at their school made the three boys aware of the opportunities available to them in the medical and dental professions, they made a pact among themselves that they would become doctors. It took a lot of determination—and a lot of support from one another—but despite all the hardships along the way, the three succeeded. Retold with the help of an award-winning author, this younger adaptation of the adult hit novel The Pact is a hard-hitting, powerful, and inspirational book that will speak to young readers everywhere.