Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice (Paperback)

4 years of English studies, and I never once sat down to read literary theory until I had to take a course in it. Bressler's book helped me immensely to sort out the confusing mass that is theory. He lists a dozen or so major movements, such as formalism, reader-response criticism, structuralism, and post-structuralism, and also includes "additional" chapters on individual theorists such as Barthes, Levi-Strauss, etc. The explanations are concise. I also like how this professor turned author looks at theory from the student's perspective: he breaks down complicated ideas into manageable parts, without losing the essential point of the theory.

Active Life Outdoor Challenge

Product Features

* Get Active – A fun and easy way to get off the couch and get hearts pumping!
* Gameplay Variety – Play over a dozen fast-paced games, alone or with friends, in energetic events that gets players’ whole bodies into the action.
* Tremendous Replay Value – Over a dozen games, each with multiple levels of play: river rafting, mine-cart adventure, log jumping, see-saw, jump rope, water trampoline, plus many more!
* Mii Support – Play as your Mii from the very beginning
* The Active Life Mat – The specially-designed mat is bundled with the game so you can jump straight into the action!

SimAnimals

Amazon.com Product Description
SimAnimals, the latest Sim video game from Electronic Arts, lets you explore a vast forest of wild animals and make it your own. With over 30 species of animals spread out in the woodlands, swamps, and more, this game will reveal secrets about the wilderness and teach you what it takes to survive in the wildlife.

The Thinker's Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving (Paperback)

Regardless of whether you specialize in a particular business skill, work in IT, are a consultant, or someone who wants to make a critical personal decision, this book will give you the necessary tools for decision making.

It has three parts: (1) 50 pages on the basics of problem solving and decision making, (2) a collection of the fourteen tools that will make you an effective problem solver or decision maker, and (3) Next steps for refining your problem solving.

Part 1 prepares you by getting you to think about thinking and providing insights to problem solving - sort of like a warm up before you engage in strenuous exercise. This is appropriate because as you work through the exercises associated with each tool you will be getting a strenuous mental workout - the author makes you think hard throughout the book.

Critical Thinking (Paperback)

In this book, Alec Fisher aims to teach directly an important range of thinking skills. The skills are fundamental critical (and creative) thinking skills, and they are taught in a way which expressly aims to facilitate their transfer to other subjects and other contexts. The method is to use 'thinking maps' which help improve thinking by asking key questions of students when they are faced with different types of problems. Alec Fisher explains the language of reasoning, how to understand different kinds of arguments and how to ask the right question. Other topics include: different patterns of reasoning and standards which apply in different contexts, how to clarify and interpret ideas, how to judge the credibility of claims, and how to decide whether a person really justifies their conclusions, given their audience. Particular attention is given to understanding casual explanations and evaluating decisions. THe book includes many examples and exercises which give extensive practice in developing critico-creative thinking skills.

Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (8th Edition) (Paperback)

This book has been a tremendously positive influence on my life as well as on the lives of those to whom I have recommended it! Before studying "Asking the Right Questions," I was well educated, but nevertheless my thinking was often muddled and illogical. As a graduate student, this book helped me to better define my own ideas as well as understand the ideas of others. I learned how to engage in truly meaningful discourse with others about ideas and principles because I could apply a more rational approach. Differences of opinion became engaging rather than destructive or unproductive. This book and its philosophy gives me hope in the idea of the "democracy of ideas."

Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Interactive Edition (with MyLitLab) (10th Edition) (Hardcover)

Product Description

The most popular introductory anthology of its kind, Kennedy/Gioia’s Literature continues to inspire people with engaging insights on reading and writing about stories, poems, and plays. Literature, Interactive Edition, 11/e comes automatically with a specialized version of MyLiteratureLab, Longman's multimedia website designed specifically for Kennedy/Gioia users. MyLiteratureLab icons are found in the margins of the text along with a list of media assets at the front of the anthology.

Poets in their own right, editors X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia bring personal warmth and a human perspective to this comprehensive anthology. Literature, Interactive Edition, 11/e, presents readable discussions of the literary devices, illustrated by engaging works, supported by useful writing tips, and followed by seven chapters devoted to writing that have been thoroughly updated to reflect MLA’s latest guidelines. Conversations with Amy Tan, Kay Ryan (the 2008 poet laureate), and David Ives, conducted by Dana Gioia, offer readers an insider’s look into the importance of reading to three contemporary writers. A Latin American Writers casebook is new to Fiction and collects some of the finest authors from the region including Octavia Paz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Ines Arendondo. A casebook on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is now featured as part of the Three Stories In-depth chapter. Many new writers have been added including Naguib Mahfouz, Virginia Woolf, Sherman Alexie, Mary Oliver, Bettie Sellers, and Anne Deavere Smith