Language bestsellers

A brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us, written with humor and playfulness that challenges words and phrases and how we use them.

“I get so jazzed about the future of feminism knowing that Amanda Montell’s brilliance is rising up and about to explode worldwide.”—Jill Soloway

The...

The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power.

What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson...

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among... Read more »

Contextualizing one of the most pressing cultural questions of our generation, Dennis Baron reveals the untold story of how we got from he and she to zie and hir and singular—they.

Like trigger warnings and gender-neutral bathrooms, pronouns are sparking a national debate, prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, even prisons, about what... Read more »

A guide to writing transformative nonfiction or inspirational memoir from a 6x author with nearly two decades' experience in the book writing and publishing space.

If you’ve ever thought, “I really want to write a book, but…” this book is for you.

Despite what you may have heard, becoming a successful author isn’t about having 67,973 Instagram...

The Original 30-Minute Crash Course!

Speak Finnish in just one short week! LANGUAGE/30™ zeroes in on the most essential phrases for day-to-day communication. Whether you are a vacationer, a business traveler, a student, or just need a refresher course, you’ll learn what you need to know in just three 30-minute sessions a day.

Developed for U.S.... Read more »

Addressing the distinctive communication skills expected of attorneys—and based on three decades of experience coaching lawyers—this manual of practical, useful solutions integrates cutting-edge discoveries in human factors, linguistics, neuroscience, gesture studies, and sports psychology. These techniques will transform any attorney into a...

Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S TOP 100 NONFICTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME

Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). 

“Superb... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The definitive guide to telling an unforgettable story in any setting, drawing on twenty-five years of experience from the storytelling experts at The Moth

“From toasts to eulogies, from job interviews to social events, this book will help you with ideas, structure, delivery and more.”—CNN

LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT... Read more »

How do you tell the story of a feminist education, when the work of feminism can never be perfected or completed? In A Sentimental Education, Hannah McGregor, the podcaster behind Witch, Please and Secret Feminist Agenda, explores what podcasting has taught her about doing feminist scholarship not as a methodology but as a way of life. Moving... Read more »

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

“Road trips are great for audiobooks! The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig is the perfect listen for cozying up under a blanket and ruminating in your melancholy. I know it sounds super depressing, but it's actually oddly comforting. The author's voice is really soothing, so it wasn't the best for a long drive, but I still really enjoyed it.”

Anna, Katy Budget Books

Find your voice, speak your truth, listen deeply—a guide to more meaningful and mindful conversations.

We spend so much of our lives talking to each other, but how much are we simply running on automatic—relying on old habits and hoping for the best? Are we able to truly hear others and speak our mind in a clear and kind way, without needing to... Read more »

Named a Best Book of the Year by: Time * New Yorker * Sunday Times (UK)

From New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity—and how it saved her life.

In this brilliant, fierce, and funny memoir of transformation, Jami Attenberg—described as a “master of modern fiction”...

Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and... Read more »

Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story.

It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story... Read more »

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the... Read more »

The first novel-writing guide from the best-selling Save the Cat! story-structure series, which reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any novel a success.

Novelist Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story-structure guide for novelists that applies the famed Save the Cat! screenwriting methodology to the world of novel writing.... Read more »

Use your voice to lead us to a better future with this game-changing guide to redefining what power and authority sound like—from a speech expert who’s worked with Hollywood’s biggest stars, political powerhouses, and businesspeople shaking up the status quo.

“I love this book—funny, surprising, stirring, and so important! What a beautiful... Read more »

Improve your spoken Spanish from home with 101 real-world conversations in intermediate Mexican Spanish.

Real Mexicans don't speak like your textbook… so it's no wonder you struggle with the slang and expressions of spoken Mexican Spanish! This book fixes that. For the first time, you'll learn to move beyond beginner level, and speak Spanish in...

Dreyer's English

“Listening to this is so much fun. Dreyer has a droll wit—occasionally smug, in a charming way—and he turns grammar and style into an entertaining puzzle. And this stuff really does matter! It’s a great listen. I’ve been snorting with laughter having to rewind to hear what I missed!”

Jennifer, Blue Willow Bookshop

From the work of the New Journalists in the 1960s, to the New Yorker essays of John McPhee, Susan Orlean, Atul Gawande, and a host of others, to narratives such as Mary Roach’s Stiff, narrative nonfiction has come into its own. Yet writers looking for guidance on reporting and writing true stories have had few places to turn for advice. Now in... Read more »

In Other Words

“Lahiri traces the origins, tribulations, and tiny victories that have fueled her decades-long courtship with the Italian language in a bilingual memoir that reads more like an intimate diary. The chapters and short stories offer a vivid timeline of Lahiri's turbulent relationship with language, bouncing around from English to Bengali during her childhood, immersing herself in the Italian culture by moving her family overseas, and finally attempting to write a book in a new voice. In Other Words is much more than an attempt -- at self-reflection and reinvention it's a mastery.”

Carly Lenz, Boswell Book Company

Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a "bombshell" linguist and "instant folk hero" (Tom Wolfe, Harper's), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of... Read more »

Want to learn Korean with easy 3-minute lessons?

Want to be able to greet others, introduce yourself, make small talk and ask basic questions in Korean? Then this 25-Lesson Audiobook is for you.

You learn the most common and useful Korean questions, answers and phrases that are used in daily conversations. Perfect for Beginners that want to start...

We spend our lives communicating. In the last fifty years, we've zoomed through radically different forms of communication, from typewriters to tablet computers, text messages to tweets. We generate more and more words with each passing day. Hiding in that deluge of language are amazing insights into who we are, how we think, and what we feel.

In... Read more »

This guide reveals how writers can utilize cognitive storytelling strategies to craft stories that ignite readers’ brains and captivate them through each plot element.

Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these... Read more »

This is the one guide that anyone who writes—whether student, business person, or professional writer—should keep with them whenever they begin to write. Filled with professional tips and a wealth of instructive examples and prompts, this valuable, easy-to-use handbook can help solve any and all writing problems. Read more »

Power French Verbs is cutting-edge, fast and easy to learn 5 hour audio program that teaches authentic French verbs the way they’ re really spoken in native context. A variety of teaching approaches are employed to encourage the learner to speak. A trained English speaking American instructor guides the listener through the program in English...

The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Russian
With Pimsleur you’ll become conversational in Russian — to understand and be understood — quickly and effectively. You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller—and a unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

"Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you... Read more »

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson—the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent—brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells...

An essay collection exploring his education as a man, writer, and activist—and how we form our identities in life and in art.

As a novelist, Alexander Chee has been described as “masterful” by Roxane Gay, “incendiary” by the New York Times, and “brilliant” by the Washington Post. With How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, his first collection...

Do you wish you could write like your favorite authors? Do you want to improve your writing? If you want to power up your stories, write with your readers in mind, and deliver what the market wants, this book is for you.

In The Anatomy of a Best Seller, you’ll discover:

What does it take to reinvent a language?

After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu... Read more »

A page-turning, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark

The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care?

In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson...

In this classic, the world’s expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling...

Sneha Mathan narrates these luminous essays on translation and self-translation by award-winning writer and literary translator Jhumpa Lahiri
With an introduction, afterword, and acknowledgements read by the author

Translating Myself and Others is a collection of candid and disarmingly personal essays by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa...

Consider This

“After listening to the audiobook recording of Consider This, I felt invigorated enough that I almost thought, "Should I write a book?" I'm not a writer, but Palahniuk's tapestry of stories and advice for the craft feels so vibrant and useful that it makes the reader (or listener, in my case) feel prepared to venture into the world of writing, and it reminds us that the most powerful stories are the ones that bring out more stories in the people interacting with it. Palahniuk's words (read with exquisite energy by Edoardo Ballerini in the audiobook) combine his own experiences and advice with stories collected from readers, booksellers, agents, and other authors he's encountered over the years. Whether or not you're a writer, Consider This will engage, titillate, and at times frighten you.”

Lelia, One More Page

The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Spanish
With Pimsleur you’ll become conversational in Spanish — to understand and be understood — quickly and effectively. You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it... Read more »

The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Spanish
With Pimsleur you’ll become conversational in Spanish — to understand and be understood — quickly and effectively. You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it... Read more »

The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Spanish
With Pimsleur you’ll become conversational in Spanish — to understand and be understood — quickly and effectively. You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it... Read more »

A 6-Week Artist’s Way Program

Julia Cameron has been teaching the world about creativity since her seminal book, The Artist’s Way, first broke open the conversation around art.

Now, in Write for Life, she turns to one of the subjects closest to her heart: the art and practice of writing.

Over the course of six weeks, Cameron carefully guides...

A short and entertaining book on the modern art of writing well by New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker

Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing? Why should any of us care?

In The Sense of Style, the... Read more »

Before and After the Book Deal

“Even better than answering the questions a writer is afraid to ask, this book more importantly answers the questions a writer may not know to ask. Filled with anecdotal examples (both negative and positive), humor, and a lot of common sense advice, this book covers everything an aspiring writer might need to know, including how to deal with agents, editors, publishers, advances, social media, book tours, movie/TV rights, depression, failure, and, yes, even success.”

Keith Glaeske, East City Bookshop

Learn Spanish in your car with Michael Patrick Noble and Paul Jackson Anderson! Our language lessons are designed to help you master the Spanish language quickly and easily.

With our audio-based system, you can learn Spanish on the go - no matter where you are or what you're doing.

Learn at your own pace, with comprehensive lessons that cover...

Can learning Spanish be as simple as listening to music?

And as easy as remembering song lyrics?

Just think. You remember song lyrics because lyrics are catchy, repeated throughout the song, and go with the music, right? Now, if you stuck in Spanish, you'd easily learn Spanish words and phrases the same way!

So, yes, learning Spanish is as easy...

USA TODAY BOOK CLUB PICK • A candid memoir about a lifelong struggle to speak. • “A raw, intimate look at [Hendrickson's] life with a stutter. It’s a profoundly moving book that will reshape the way you think about people living with this condition.”—Esquire

“Brims with empathy and honesty...It’s fantastic.”—Clint Smith, best-selling author of... Read more »

Bunk traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon, examining what motivates hucksters and makes the rest of us so gullible. Disturbingly, Young finds that fakery is woven from stereotype and suspicion, race being the most insidious American hoax of all. He chronicles how Barnum came to fame by displaying figures like Joice... Read more »

The long-awaited guide to writing long-form nonfiction by the legendary author and teacher Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University,... Read more »