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American History for Everyone will make the American adventure come alive for you.
Laugh yourself silly with the national best-selling Anguished English, a side-splitting collection of accidental assaults on the English language.
Whet your Wit with this Hilarious Punster’s Bible. Also identifies what puns are and how to create them.
This book is a career-capping anthology of essays that inspire, enlighten, and tickle the funny bone.
Richard Lederer is Learning and Language Dressed Up to Have Fun, and Lederer’s Language & Laughter is his funniest book ever.
Illuminating stories about the histories and mysteries of everyday words and phrases.
A treasure chest of amazing facts, curiosities, and quizzes about your favorite authors and their works.
Richard Lederer shares wit and wisdom, information and inspiration about the incredible journey to maturity.
Celebrating Your Feline Friend
Celebrating Your Best Friend
A Tribute to Teachers celebrates the most unheralded, exhausting, income-challenged, and ultimately rewarding of all professions.
A sublime adventure in recreational linguistics that brings order to our English language.
In this wide-ranging collection, Richard Lederer offers his reflections on the English language, along with his tales of a life in letters.
The Big Book of Word Play Crosswords is a rousing collection of 100 original puzzles put together by best-selling language author Richard Lederer and award-winning crossword constructor Gayle Dean.
Richard Lederer finally is able to reveal the naughty side of wordplay.
Super Funny Animal Jokes is designed for readers 8-11 years young, who love animals and humor.
Wild & Wacky Animal Jokes is designed for readers 8-11 years young, who love animals and humor.
Hilarious jokes about animals, from aardvark to zebra, for children 8-12.
Hilarious jokes about animals, from aardvark to zebra, for children 8-12.
Animal Cracker Uppers Jr. is designed for readers 7-8 years young, who love animals and humor.
The guide to real-life writing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
A practical guide for the grammatically challenged.
This is a fun-damental guide to the craft and art of punctuating precisely and profoundly.
American History for Everyone will make the American adventure come alive for you. You’ll think more about the diverse people who have gone before us and worked so hard to bequeath us a united, spirited, and enchanting country, blessed with the gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Woven into that history, along with the iconic figures — Betsy Ross, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, et al. — are the hidden figures — women and Brown, Black, and indigenous people who have contributed mightily to the fascinating story of our great nation.
Anguished English: Accidental Assaults Upon the English Language
Laugh yourself silly with the national best-selling Anguished English, Richard Lederer’s side-splitting collection of accidental assaults upon the English language, from student bloopers to headline howlers to mixed-up metaphors.
Dane Chobanian’s sprightly illustrations add to the rollicking fun of Anguished English.
Laugh yourself silly with Richard Lederer’s side-splitting parade of puns, from a menagerie of plays on words to holiday puns to a pack of pun and games. He also identifies what puns are and how to create them.
“Richard Lederer is to wordplay what John Philip Sousa is to marches.” —Rod L. Evans, author of Tyrannosaurus Lex
Dane Chobanian’s sprightly illustrations add to the rollicking fun of Jest for the Pun of It.
After a half century of sparking readers to appreciate the glories of the English language and laugh at its oddities, beloved language maven Richard Lederer serves up a veritable banquet of words. This book is a career-capping anthology of essays that inspire, enlighten, and tickle the funny bone.
From his hymns of praise to English to his rib-tickling bloopers and puns, these verbal performances are among the brightest gems of a storied career — certain to delight language lovers and Lederer fans everywhere.
Brett Radlicki’s gallery of illustrations adds to the luminous joy and rollicking fun of A Feast of Words. This is the perfect book for family, friends, and yourself — everyone smitten by the magic of language.
Known as “Attila the Pun” and “The First Name in Popular Linguistics,” Richard Lederer is Learning and Language Dressed Up to Have Fun, and Lederer’s Language & Laughter is his funniest book ever. In its pages, he takes you on a joyride through our glorious, uproarious, notorious, victorious English language.
Chock full of jokes, wordplay, bloopers, puns, crazy English, funny names, grammar stammers, and hilarious holiday humor, this book will brighten your days and make you laugh again and again. A belly-shaking guffaw stimulates circulation, tones the muscles, energizes the lungs, excites endorphins, adds T cells to the immune system, reduces pain, inflammation, and muscle tension, and provides superb aerobic exercise. They who laugh, last.
-Paperback Edition-
(Note: for Hardback Edition, please contact Richard)
To the man or woman who knows its origin, each word presents a picture, no matter how ordinary it may appear. Best-selling language author Richard Lederer passionately and humorously presents illuminating stories about the histories and mysteries of everyday words and phrases. In this hardcover book, Dr. Lederer illuminates the history and mystery of everyday words and expressions, organizing these etymologies into 13 thematic clusters, including body parts; wild kingdom; entertainment; land, sea, air, and beyond; politics; sports; science; and religion.
A treasure chest of amazing facts, curiosities, and quizzes about your favorite authors and their works. Looking back to the Bible, classical mythology, and William Shakespeare and moving up to a library of contemporary writers, Richard Lederer’s Ultimate Book of Literary Trivia promises bright days of entertainment and enlightenment for the passionate book lover.
What fictional detective survived an attempted murder by his creator?
Whose gravestone bears the inscription “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”?
Who was the single mother, living on state benefits, whose series of fantastic novels made her the richest writer in England?
Dr. Lederer has written more than 60 books about language, history, and humor.
Richard Lederer shares wit and wisdom, information and inspiration about the incredible journey to maturity. The touching stories, fascinating facts, and rollicking humor will stir your soul, stimulate your mind, and tickle your funny bone. The pages are set in 14-point type.
A blend of touching stories, fascinating facts, and rollicking humor is presented in this entertaining look at the jaunt towards senior citizenship. Guaranteed to stir souls, stimulate minds, and tickle funny bones, the chapters include “Why It’s Great to Be Chronologically Endowed,” “Grandkids Say the Darnedest Things,” “The Lighter Side of Aging,” and “Jest for the Health of It.” Advice on enjoying one’s golden years is featured, from how to accumulate happiness and social wisdom to the delights of retirement. With puns, jokes, riddles, and puzzles illuminating important aspects on the aging process, this uproarious guide also lists outstanding achievements by “chronologically gifted” leaders, artists, writers, and athletes.
The Gift of Age is one of Dr. Lederer’s best-selling that is not about language. Jim McLean’s sprightly illustrations add joy to this book.
Celebrating Your Feline Friend
In these pages cat lovers can celebrate the special bond they share with their beloved companions. A heartwarming collection of fascinating facts, touching stories, history, science, and hilarious jokes about our feline friends.
Cat lovers everywhere, we invite you to come and celebrate the special bond we share with one of our most beloved companions! Join bestselling author Richard Lederer for a heartwarming collection of fascinating facts, touching stories, witty word games, and more — all complemented by hilarious drawings. Settle in with your favorite feline, as you read wit and wisdom like…
Why Cats Are Better Than Dogs
Famous Cats and Cat Lovers
A Cat’s Guide to Humans
10 Clues That Your Cat Has Hacked into Your E-mail Password
Celebrating Your Best Friend
In these pages dog lovers can celebrate the special bond they share with their beloved companions. A heartwarming collection of fascinating facts, touching stories, history, science, and hilarious jokes about our best friends.
Dogs have been man’s best friend for thousands of years, securing our hearts with their unwavering loyalty and boundless love. Join bestselling author Richard Lederer for a fun-filled collection of rollicking humor, witty word games, touching stories, and more — all complemented by hilarious drawings. Celebrate the company of your furry pal as you delight in such wit and wisdom as…
All I Need to Know I Learned from My Dog
Ten Commandments for Dog Owners
A Dozen Distinguished Dogs
The Difference Between Dogs and Cats
Cheering on the true heroes of the classroom, Richard Lederer sings a chorus of praise for those who change our lives one day and one lesson at a time. Readers will meet great teachers throughout history, as well as educators captured in literature, film, and comic strips. A must for teachers and those who love them.
Offering compelling proof that teachers really do make a difference in the English, math, history, and science classrooms, A Tribute to Teachers celebrates the most unheralded, exhausting, income-challenged, and ultimately rewarding of all professions.
Challenging Words is a sublime adventure in recreational linguistics that brings order to our English language. Be prepared for a wordy workout consisting of aerobics of the mind and push-ups of the brain.
This is not a book for everyone. But if you are heels-over-head nuts about language and have a passion for snatching significance from the mass data swirling around us, you will share in its pages some sublime adventures in re-creation-al linguistics.
In the process of rising to the various challenges in these pages, your axons, dendrites, ganglia, and synapses will get quite a workout as you engage in a series of push-ups of the mind and aerobics of the brain.
Throughout his word-happy, wordstruck, wordaholic career, Dr. Richard Lederer has epitomized “learning dressed up to have fun.” His mission is to impose order on chaos and sprinkle fairy dust on the mundane. Enter this great banquet hall of words, and you will savor the abundant harvest of our bountiful, multifoliate English language.
Just about everybody has a name. In The Joy of Names, his master guide to names, best-selling language author Richard Lederer illuminates all you need to know about first names, baby names, last names, nicknames, cruel and unusual names, movie stars’ names, presidents’ names, eponymous names, names from myths, authors’ pseudonyms, and other fascinating facts about names.
Richard Lederer, known as “Learning Dressed Up to Have Fun,” makes these topics delightfully accessible. The illustrations by Todd Smith help bring the information to vibrant life.
In this wide-ranging collection, Richard Lederer offers his reflections on the English language, along with his tales of a life in letters. The more than 30 chapters include Dr. Lederer’s best columns from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Best-selling language writer Richard Lederer offers readers more of the irrepressible word play his fans can’t get enough of, along with his observations on a life in letters. From teaching English to Russian fifth graders to a zany dinner for punsters and from etymology to slang to dialect to fadspeak, these essays are learning and language dressed up to have fun, as only Dr. Lederer does it. He is the author of more than 60 books about language, history, and humor.
Conceived by Richard Lederer and built by award-winning constructor Gayle Dean, each of the 100 puzzles in The Big Book of Word Play Crosswords is a rousing collection of 100 original puzzle.100 crossword puzzles in this book combines the classical elegance of American crosswords with the cleverness of British versions.
Sparked by amusing, witty, and challenging themes, these brain teasers feature jokes, puns, bloopers, rhymes, anagrams, and palindromes. Each of the 100 crossword puzzles includes an introduction by verbivore Richard Lederer, author of more than 60 books about language, history, and humor.
Have some fun with your native tongue!
In The Cunning Linguist, renowned language expert Richard Lederer shows us the naughtier side of wordplay, revealing hundreds of hilarious, ingenious, unabashed, and adults-only puns, jokes, limericks, one-liners, and other adventures in sexual humor. This book of “good, clean dirty fun” will delight word hounds, punsters, bachelor-party goers, and adult and adulterer who likes a clever grown-up joke.
Here’s a taste of The Cunning Linguist:
What does a man have in his pants that you can also find on a pool table?
Pockets.
Have you heard about the incompatible couple?
He had no income, and she wasn’t pattable.
The four stages of a couple’s sex life:
Under 35: Tri-weekly
35-45: Try weekly
45-55: Try weakly
55 and over: Try, try, try.
For much more, sneak between the covers of this unique and laugh-out-loud book.
For readers 8-11 years young, Super Funny Animal Jokes is designed for children who love animals and humor. Inside its pages are more than 500 animal jokes that are guaranteed to make readers howl, twitter, yip, and yelp with lots of laughter.
How do you know when it’s raining cats and dogs? When you step in a poodle. Hilarious jokes about animals, from aardvark to zebra.
Everybody loves animal jokes: Duck jokes quack you up. Porcupine jokes are to-the-point. Elephant jokes are worth the weight. Skunk jokes are real stinkers, and kangaroo jokes are best by leaps and bounds.
The co-authors, Richard Lederer and Jim Ertner, have both been elected International Punster of the Year, and Jim McLean’s delightful illustrations add to the fun.
How do you know when it’s raining cats and dogs? When you step in a poodle. Hilarious jokes about animals, from aardvark to zebra, for children 8-12.
Wild & Wacky Animal Jokes is designed for readers 8-11 years young, who love animals and humor. Inside its pages are more than 500 animal jokes that are guaranteed to make readers howl, twitter, yip, and yelp with lots of laughter.
Everybody loves animal jokes: Duck jokes quack you up. Porcupine jokes are to-the-point. Elephant jokes are worth the weight. Skunk jokes are real stinkers, and kangaroo jokes are best by leaps and bounds.
The co-authors, Richard Lederer and Jim Ertner, have both been elected International Punster of the Year, and Jim McLean’s delightful illustrations add to the fun.
For readers 8-11 years young, Rip Roaring Animal Jokes is designed for children who love animals and humor. Inside its pages are more than 500 animal jokes that are guaranteed to make readers howl, twitter, yip, and yelp with lots of laughter.
How do you know when it’s raining cats and dogs? When you step in a poodle. Hilarious jokes about animals, from aardvark to zebra.
Everybody loves animal jokes: Duck jokes quack you up. Porcupine jokes are to-the-point. Elephant jokes are worth the weight. Skunk jokes are real stinkers, and kangaroo jokes are best by leaps and bounds.
The co-authors, Richard Lederer and Jim Ertner, have both been elected International Punster of the Year, and Jim McLean’s delightful illustrations add to the fun.
For readers 8-11 years young, Cleverly Comical Animal Jokes is designed for children who love animals and humor. Inside its pages are more than 500 animal jokes that are guaranteed to make readers howl, twitter, yip, and yelp with lots of laughter.
How do you know when it’s raining cats and dogs? When you step in a poodle. Hilarious jokes about animals, from aardvark to zebra.
Everybody loves animal jokes: Duck jokes quack you up. Porcupine jokes are to-the-point. Elephant jokes are worth the weight. Skunk jokes are real stinkers, and kangaroo jokes are best by leaps and bounds.
The co-authors, Richard Lederer and Jim Ertner, have both been elected International Punster of the Year, and Jim McLean’s delightful illustrations add to the fun.
For readers 7-8 years young, Animal Cracker Uppers Jr. is designed for children who love animals and humor. Inside its pages are more than 500 animal jokes that are guaranteed to make readers howl, twitter, yip, and yelp with lots of laughter.
Celebrating one of children’s favorite forms of comedy, this witty wordplay collection provides a lively array of animal-inspired amusement. Beginning with a dictionary of jokes and riddles, dozens of different species are highlighted in alphabetical order. The subsequent section is arranged by classic clusters from knock-knock jokes and rhymes to quips overheard in a restaurant. Mixing vocabulary-enhancing humor with fun-filled facts about the animal kingdom, young readers will delight at zany, zoological insights coupled with engaging illustrations.
Everybody loves animal jokes: Duck jokes quack you up. Porcupine jokes are to-the-point. Elephant jokes are worth the weight. Skunk jokes are real stinkers, and kangaroo jokes are best by leaps and bounds.
The co-authors, Richard Lederer and Jim Ertner, have both been elected International Punster of the Year, and Jim McLean’s delightful illustrations add to the fun.
In this guide to real-life writing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation, you’ll learn to write right. Joining forces are Richard Lederer, a former Usage Editor of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, and Richard Dowis, former Publications Director for Coca-Cola.
From Simon & Schuster, The Write Way is the S.P.E.L.L. (Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature) guide to real-life writing.
Anyone who’s tackled tricky grammar, slippery syntax, pesky punctuation, head-scratching spelling, and sneaky jargon knows that good writing is never easy. In this ingenious guide, enjoy the wit of two English language mavens as they entertain while answering all your perplexing questions about how to write clearly, persuasively, and accurately.
This practical guide for the grammatically challenged gives the lowdown on all the major issues of grammar and usage. Joining forces are Richard Lederer, a former Usage Editor of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, and Richard Dowis, former Publications Director for Coca-Cola.
For years Richard Lederer has enthralled fans of the English language with his keen insights, commonsense advice, and witty presentation. Now
The authors clear up once and for all the confusion between lay and lie and put to rest some common myths about language. The book’s finale is a ten-minute writing lesson from which everyone, from rank amateur to seasoned pro, can benefit. These and dozens of other features make this book pure pleasure for language buffs, writers, and teachers. Sleeping Dogs Don’t Lay is useful and authoritative as well as fun to read, with humorous touches often popping up where least expected and most needed.
On your marks! This is a fun-damental guide to the craft and art of punctuating precisely and profoundly. With high humor, Comma Sense reveals the essential rules for using commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, and all the other crucial squiggles that enhance our writing. Co-author Richard Lederer is a former Usage Editor of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language.
Are you confounded by commas, addled by apostrophes, or queasy about quotation marks? Do you believe a bracket is just a support for a wall shelf, a dash is something you make for the bathroom, and a colon and semicolon are large and small intestines? If so, language humorists Richard Lederer and John Shore (with the sprightly aid of illustrator Jim McLean), have written the perfect book to help make your written words perfectly precise and punctuationally profound.
Don’t expect Comma Sense to be a dry, academic tome. On the contrary, the authors show how each mark of punctuation―no matter how seemingly arcane―can be effortlessly associated with a great American icon: the underrated yet powerful period with Seabiscuit; the jazzy semicolon with Duke Ellington; even the rebel apostrophe with famed outlaw Jesse James. But this book is way more than a flight of whimsy. When you’ve finished Comma Sense, you’ll not only have mastered everything you need to know about punctuation through Lederer and Shore’s simple, clear, and right-on-the-mark rules, you’ll have had fun doing so. When you’re done laughing and learning, you’ll be a veritable punctuation whiz, ready to make your marks accurately, sensitively, and effectively.