Product Description: [Library Edition Audiobook CD in sturdy Vinyl case.] [Read by Tavia Gilbert] Entertaining, unexpected, and full of charm, the follow-up to Jessica Kerwin Jenkins' Encyclopedia of the Exquisite presents a miscellany of engaging stories, detailing the intriguing customs, traditions, and guilty pleasures pursued throughout the ages...read more

Entertaining, unexpected, and full of charm, the follow-up to Jessica Kerwin Jenkins’s Encyclopedia of the Exquisite presents a miscellany of engaging stories, detailing the intriguing customs, traditions, and guilty pleasures pursued throughout the ages. All the Time in the World takes its cue from an iconic component of medieval life, the book of hours, which prescribed certain readings and contemplations for certain parts of the day throughout the year. Divided into more than seventy-five entries, All the Time in the World is brimming with witty bons mots, interesting etymologies, and arresting anecdotes encompassing an array of cultures and eras. Subjects covered include the daylong ceremony of laying a royal Elizabethan tablecloth; the radicalization of sartorial chic in 1890s Paris; Nostradamus's belief in the aphrodisiac power of jam; the sensuous practice of sniffing incense in fifteenth-century Japan; the American fascination with flaming desserts; the short-lived artistic discipline of “lumia,” or visual music; the evolution of coffee from a religious ritual to a forbidden delight in the Middle East; Henriette d'Angeville's fearless and wine-fueled ascent of Mont Blanc; the elaborate treasure hunts concocted by London's Bright Young Things; and the musical revolution known as bebop. An antidote to the contemporary cult of “getting things done,” All the Time in the World revives forgotten treasures of the past while inspiring a passion for good living in the present.

This textbook by Hendrik Van den Berg on Economic Growth and Development presents a long-awaited synthesis of Development Economics and Growth Theory. It also incorporates the recent contributions to our understanding of economic growth from the fields of economic history and the new institutional economics. By basing its analysis on the recent advances in growth theory, the book offers a unified approach to all episodes of economic growth for countries at all levels of development and throughout history. Students will be comfortable with an analysis that enables them to understand economic growth in their own country as well as in economies very different from their own. The unified theoretical framework greatly facilitates students’ understanding of the process of economic growth, and the many cases and examples highlight the fascinating diversity of our world.

Product Description: This unique volume—Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Golden Plunger Awards—gives readers a new way to recognize some of the world’s greatest (and oddest) achievements. Since 1987, the Bathroom Readers’ Institute has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and everywhere else for that matter)...read more

An introduction to geography examines countries and people around the world and answers questions about climate, agriculture, flags, currency, as well as customs, clothes, festivals, and sporting events. Reprint.

Product Description: This colorful globe-trotting book is packed with fascinating facts about countries, people, and places, providing readers with answers to questions as intriguing as "Where do elephants glow in the dark?" and "Which country has more sheep than people?"

Product Description: Cigarettes to cure asthma? Crushed strawberries to remove freckles? Old advice can be peculiar or even downright dangerous, as this eye-opening, enjoyable treasury of misinformation proves. Drawn from such tomes as Ladies' Indispensable Assistant (1852), Mrs...read more

Understanding Economics Today focuses on vital issues pertinent to current and perspective participants in the U.S. and global economy. This popular long-tested text applies basic economic reasoning to build understanding of how our complex commercial society operates. Economic principles, both micro and macro, are learned through repeated applications to real world events. The emphasis on the power of economic reasoning, rather than laborious technical jargon, positively motivates both students and teachers.

Answers questions about people, places, and things including, 'Where do elephants glow in the dark?' and 'Where does chocolate grow on trees?' (view table of contents)