You are not alone. Nearly 80 percent of office workers have admitted that they often simply don’t know what their colleagues are talking about. If you’re one of them, help is at hand!

What’s the single most important thing you can do during pregnancy? What does watching TV do to a child’s brain? What’s the best way to handle temper tantrums? Scientists know. In his New York Times bestseller Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina showed us how our brains really work and why we ought to redesign our […]

See how the brain works while using it in the process of reading this book! Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know – like that physical activity boosts your brain power. How do we learn? […]

We often use phrases such as let the “cat out of the bag”, “in a nutshell” and “spill the beans” which are not meant to be taken literally. If we hear that someone has “kicked the bucket”, for instance, we know that it refers to someone who has died. In the book, Dunkling explains the […]

Having trouble writing sentences? Do you want to learn how to seduce readers into reading your work by using adverbs and adjectives effectively? Do you know how to overcome the four major grammar pests? Dr Laurie Rozakis, best-selling author, grammarian and Professor of English and Humanities at Farmingdale State University, NY, has written more than […]

Rebecca Bloomwood is a columnist for a financial magazine although she knows nothing about derivatives or stocks and shares. She hates the job, but at least she has a stable income.

Always find yourself misinterpreted? Not understood? Are you frustrated with the people around you, as well as yourself? There could be pink elephants in your speech!

This book is designed to help all students master the basics of English grammar that they need to succeed in their studies. Best of all, when students understand the underpinnings of our language, learning will be fun—as it should be. With more than 25 years of experience in teaching grammar to utterly-confused students, author Laurie […]

If you have ever been bamboozled by the use of a foreign word or phrase, or simply want to spice up your vocabulary with some well-chosen bon mots-without making an embarrassing faux pas-then this is the book for you.

What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common? Why do drug dealers live with their mothers? How can your name affect how well you do in life? The answer: Freakonomics. It’s at the heart of everything we do and the things that affect us daily, from sex to crime, parenting to […]

The English language is evolving extremely quickly on the internet. These days, cyber-speak is how netizens communicate in Singapore. Ruth Wajnryb has compiled common contemporary phrases and words used in the blogosphere known collectively as blogabulary. Ignore them and you may be perceived as an anachronistic dinosaur. Consider these words: cognitariat (knowledge workers) and digerati […]

As Millie approaches forty, she realises time is running out for her, and she suddenly wants a baby now. She tries every way and method with her husband, Andrew, to get pregnant, but after months of trying, there is still no good news. She wants a baby so much that she does not realise it […]

Written in a humorous and accessible tone, How Not to Write is a light-hearted guidebook that dispels common writing myths and promotes grammatical common sense instead. Focusing on concise, conversational and clear writing, this book illustrates how to write with many useful examples. Learn about office-clichés, the difference between ‘that’ and ‘which’, and find out […]

Even if you are not fanatical about grammatically correct English, you will still enjoy the author’s wit and dig on incorrect use of the language. This collection contains Safire’s writings featured in The New York Times Magazine. Skip the denser articles if you are not in the mood; you will still find the light hearted […]

“I’ll tell you a secret – I can read words of one letter! Isn’t that grand?”- The White Queen to Alice in Through the Looking Glass. Quick quiz: How many one-letter words do you know? Besides ‘A’ and ‘I’, do you know any others? Well then, you will find One-Letter Words: A Dictionary an interesting […]

When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we’re in control. We think we’re making smart, rational choices. But are we? From paying for coffee to losing weight, and buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, Dan Ariely explains how to break through these systematic patterns of thought to make better, […]

Proverbs, or traditional sayings, are concise yet witty. They also convey underlying advice and wisdom, for example, ‘Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ and ‘when one door shuts, another opens.’ Presented in a reader-friendly style, this handy guide is a collection of common proverbs listed alphabetically. Each […]

How can you know someone you’ve never met? Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn’t. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair. When she leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in […]

The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches and Boo-boos The average English improvement book may cast a sleep spell on you, but The Bride of Anguished English will bring you on a magical literary tour of the English language. The book is a collection of puns, typographical errors, mangled metaphors, accidental […]

It starts almost by accident: the women who buy their knitting needles and wool from Georgia’s store linger for advice, for a coffee, for a chat and before they know it, every Friday night is knitting night. And as the needles clack, and the garments grow, the conversation moves on from patterns and yarn to […]