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The French are famously enigmatic: fiercely independent yet deeply romantic, conservative yet avant-garde, rational yet emotional. What is it, exactly, that makes the French so… French?

Written for anyone interacting with the French-tourists, businesspeople, international students, Francophiles-Au Contraire! offers a perceptive understanding of French cultural beliefs, assumptions and attitudes, along with practical advice on building strong personal and professional relationships with the French. Addressing issues like friendship, politics, work, education and romance, bilingual and bi cultural authors Asselin and Mastron draw upon their own experiences as consultants and trainers, as well as those of students and professionals, giving readers a complete – and compelling – look at French culture.

This revised edition of Au Contraire! includes updated information about France’s changing social and political climate, advice for succeeding as an expat, information about the French educational system, overviews of France’s diverse regions – and more.

China is in the midst of unprecedented economic and cultural growth. In the last decade alone, China joined the World Trade Organization, hosted the 2008 Olympics and experienced a remarkable, record-high increase in its foreign currency reserves. As these changes unfold, frequency of contact between the Chinese and Westerners is dramatically increasing in the office, the classroom and the home.

With thought-provoking glimpses into history and tradition, Encountering the Chinese provides fundamental information on Chinese cultural norms and values, giving clear context for contemporary social standards. Readers will learn the etiquette necessary to build successful personal and professional relationships with the Chinese both inside and outside the People’s Republic of China.

This revised edition of Encountering the Chinese also explains how Chinese values are changing rapidly-and why it is more important than ever to keep up. For instance, compliments, once declined out of modesty, are now widely accepted in coastal cities; and some terms of address that were proper to use only a decade ago have grown offensive. Encountering the Chinese provides invaluable insight into the diverse and changing Chinese culture.

After staying home with his two sons for a year and his daughter since her infancy, Tim Myers knows all about being a stay-at-home parent. He knows the most effective cleaning products, which snacks to buy, and has developed a “housemaid’s knee.” He has experienced first-hand the profound influence fathers have on their children, along with the challenges of being a committed parent. By recounting personal experiences, offering honest, sincere opinions, and including quizzes for fatherly-preparedness, Tim Myers emphasizes the importance of fatherly contribution and influence in the home. He shows fathers that they are not only vital to home life, but that fatherhood also brings great joy into men’s lives, not to mention a surprising amount of plain old fun. In addition, Myers details the essential role of fathers, and the very real (and sometimes frustrating) transition into taking an active role in home life. Poignant, funny, and inspiring, Glad to be Dad is perfect for both aspiring fathers and seasoned veterans.

“When I was asked to write this book it was not because I am an accredited child rearing expert. I have no degree, credentials or recognition as a child raising expert. I am a professional storyteller who occasionally tells stories about parenting. Here’s an important credential I do hold: I have won the West Virginia Liars’ Contest five times. The advice I offer, however, is honest. I have two kids who, at this writing, are eight and eleven years old. That gives me nineteen collective years in the parenting trenches. I cannot claim to be a successful parent. I’m not sure when any parent can deem their job a success. Your child’s whole life will be greatly determined by the portion they spend with you. I am offering what advice I can with the idea that I think my wife and I are doing pretty well. “I should admit that I have never before written an advice book, never read an advice book, and don’t have much intention of ever reading one. I’m not sure I’ve ever even read an instruction manual past the point where it says, ‘Before attempting to operate this device you need to thoroughly read these instructions.’ I just muddle through.” —from the Introduction While National storyteller Bil Lepp has been known to lie in public, in his book Muddling Through he gives us some truths he has learned from being a parent and from having parents. Each lesson has a story attached which makes it not only fun reading, but memorable learning as well.

“Mama let’s make a moon; it won’t cost too much. We’ll use second-hand stardust And leftover love; We’ll stuff it with silly And marshmallow goo And paint it with promise. Mama, Let’s make a moon.”Award winning and nationally recognized author/illustrator Clay Rice has created a beautifully poetic tale about a humble mountain family who decide to make a moon. Created with Rice’s renowned individual paper cut art, the fun begins when the brother and sister start collecting the “ingredients”. The “Recipe For A Moon” contains everything from “a stream full of silver, a swan’s starry shine, and 2 ‘possum’s paws of dream dust from the imagination mine.” Along the way they teach the reader about love, the importance of relationships, and the joy of making something from nothing.

Award winning author/illustrator Clay Rice has created a beautifully poetic tale about a boy’s shadow who has lost his boy and goes in search for him. “I have no you, you have no me, you and me we have no we, but if I find you and you find me, happy we will always be.” The Lonely Shadow sings a universal song. Clay Rice brings the shadow to life and allows us to take a journey with him in search of something, someone who connects with him. It’s a story of longing, a story of discovery, a story of friendship.

With tons of color photographs and a DVD with over 2 hours of hilarious instructional videos, this is the perfect how-to book for all levels of puppetry skill, from beginners to master artisans. With instructions on making hand puppets, turning stuffed animals into puppets, building mechanical puppets, finding accessories, performing, inventing voices, building stages, and more, this is the most comprehensive book of its kind. And with jokes and puppet humor throughout, it’s not just a handbook—it’s a joy to read!

Amelia: young, naive, in love. Geoff: charming, narcissistic, intelligent. In a decidedly European affair, a young couple consummates a courtship destined for differences. The resultant pregnancy provides a haunting yet charming backdrop for the challenges of love and its often unwanted decisions.In the first person and in a creative journal style, author Abigail Calkin explores three choices that Amelia can make—give birth, give the baby up for adoption, or abortion. The resultant exploration and mature reflection provides a unique and rich literary backdrop for the choices each young woman faces when pregnant.

The world’s teenagers have never been so challenged as they are today. The constant demands of parents, school, work, peers, social media, athletics, music. . . has created a generation who, while tremendously capable, are also tremendously stressed. Today’s teens are expected to not only do it all but to do it now. Having personally coached thousands of students over his years as an educator and a professional performance coach, Dr. Bernstein (Dr. B) understands and connects with today’s young adults. He knows they are intelligent, talented and full of creative energy and he uses his decades of experience in A Teen’s Guide to Success to help teen’s succeed.A Teen’s Guide to Success shares principles and skills that help teens discover their higher potential and learn how to be calm, confident and focused in whatever situation they find themselves. Teens will learn the same techniques that all top athletes, musicians, business leaders and other successful people practice. As teens implement the tools taught in A Teen’s Guide to Success they will find a roadmap to achieve their potential and be successful in all aspects of their lives.

The wire-thin line that separates movies rated PG and R has been crossed over so many times in both directions that industry observers are questioning whether the rating system carries any validity at all. As a movie reviewer for more than thirty years and as a watchful, caretaker parent, author Chris Hicks learned pretty quickly that Hollywood movers and shakers like to “push the envelope,” as they put it, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a children’s film or an adult movie. It’s not just R-rated movies that are troubling. PG-13s and even PGs can also be problematic. And sometimes worse than problematic. Simply put, relying on the Motion Picture Association of America to make choices for you or your children is a mistake. Breaking down the history of the film rating system and exploring today’s ratings confusion and quagmire, Hicks provides valuable information to help parents know how to interpret and what to expect from today’s movies.

Whether you have one child or twelve (do you really have twelve?), they seem to come prepackaged with their own personality. You wonder how much nurture is going into this nature and how you’ll ever survive let alone thrive. In the throes of raising nine children ages three through twenty one, Robbins, the Pater Familius of Familius.com has penned his thoughts on how to be happy while raising children in such a way that we embrace the imperfect system we call parenthood. We laugh, we cry, we debate and finally agree that parenthood is a unique and individual journey that reveals far more about ourselves than any other pursuit. In the spirit of Paul Arden’s books on marketing, Robbins explores strategies, best practices, ideas, and the never-ending challenges of what it means to be a parent. In the end, he contends, family success and happiness is not only possible while raising children but is really all around us if we but stop, look, and listen.

“My goal is to empower you to train yourself. This is why I want to give you a strong foundation of fitness education in weight training, cardio, nutrition, and keeping the right mental attitude—so that you can live a healthy lifestyle forever.” From Body Fit If you have ever wondered if weight lifting is for you or have been confused on what to do to get in the best shape of your life, Body Fit is for you. Greg Marshall, who has helped thousands of fitness beginners achieve their fitness goals, cuts through the overhyped exercise advice and provides a simple step-by-step path to better health, more endurance, a stronger body, and a happier you. Marshall carefully and succinctly explains the how and why to specific workout programs, the importance of nutrition, and the often ignored importance of understanding our body image. Body Fit empowers you with life-long fitness lessons so you can stop the yo-yo effect and start seeing lasting results that will improve every aspect of your life.

Dude to Dad: The First Nine Months contains absolutely no expert advice or medical guidance.You can read about mucus plugs and colostrum elsewhere. What you will find is a candid, quick and often irreverent roadmap for making the most of your own personal transition from Dude to Dad.“I had just landed in a rickety prop plane on a dirt runway on an island in the Arctic Ocean off the north slope of Alaska. I picked up the satellite phone to call my wife and let her know we had survived the most aggressive part of the trip. She told me that she thought she should take “the test.” Little did I know that the journey had just begun. . .”

The power of quotations is universal. To have a glimpse into the wisdom of those who have gone before us is invaluable. With more than 300 unique quotations, The Quotable Parent shares thoughts, ideas, humor, and advice from the best minds of the ages for the most challenging situations. Includes quotes from: Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Martha Washington, Cicero, Socrates, John Wesley, Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Disney, Goethe, Mozart, Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, John Wooden, Seneca, Harry Truman, Abigail Van Buren, Oscar Wilde, and many others. “Boyhood, like measles, is one of those complaints which a man should catch young and have done with, for when it comes in middle life it is apt to be serious.”—P.G. Wodehouse

Grandparenting is hard enough, but when you add in the blended family element, whether step or adopted, the challenge is even greater. How do you succeed when these children are not your own? How do you make them your own? Can you get them to love you? to like you? to trust you? How do successful grandparents do it?Dene Low, an award winning author and grandparent herself, explores thirty different sets of grandparents and provides tips and solutions from her interviews and research for grandparent success.Your role as a grandparent is critical to your grandchildren, whether they be your biological grandchildren, step grandchildren, or adopted grandchildren. You have a role to play. You have a difference to make. As the author says, “Grandparents can save the world.”

After more than twenty years living internationally—sixteen addresses, eight countries, and five different languages—writer Melissa Bradford shares a fantastic journey of motherhood that will inspire any family. Follow this family of six on their passage—extraordinary, hilarious and heartbreakingly poignant—from Bright Lights (of New York City) to the Northern Lights (of Norway) to the City of Light (Paris) to the speed-of-light of the Autobahn (in Munich). Continue deep into the tropics of Southeast Asia (Singapore) and end your voyage in the heights of the Swiss Alps (Geneva). As varied as the topography—the craggy fjords, the meandering Seine, the black forests, the muggy tropics, the soaring Alps—this multicultural tale traverses everything from giving birth in a château in Versailles to living on an island in a fjord. From singing jazz on national Norwegian T.V. to judging an Indonesian beauty contest. From navigating the labyrinth of French bureaucracy and the traffic patterns of Singapore to sitting around a big pine table where the whole family learns languages, cultures, cuisines—where they, in short, learn to love this complex and diverse world and, most importantly, each other.

From the personal tragedy of a stillbirth to an Ironman and beyond, author and stay-at-home mom of five children Mette Ivie Harrison learned life lessons about accepting herself, moving forward, pushing to become better, and bringing her family along the way—sometimes kicking and screaming. In this riveting and inspiring first-person story of going from couch potato to nationally ranked triathlete, Mette shares her experience training and racing with her family. She explores how to manage a busy family, how to ignore the things that don’t matter, and how to focus on goals that create a stronger you and a stronger family. She shares how racing can be a vacation, how racing with your children strengthens your family bond and how, when you think you’ve hit your wall, whether in parenthood or during hour twelve in a triathlon, how you can push through and succeed. Part memoir, part manual, and all family, this incredible story of how one mom chose to remake her life and her family will inspire you to achieve greater heights.

Women frustrated with their marriage and their family will find the help they need to achieve greater happiness and success in their family in the new book, Family Ever After: Simple Ways to Achieve Extraordinary Happiness with Your Ordinary Family by stay-at-home mom, blogger, and ordinary family leader Michelle H. Packard.Family Ever After uses the fairytale concept that once you find your prince charming life is happily ever after. Michelle H. Packard knows this concept, while romantic, is not realistic, and she provides a practical, poignant, funny, and moving exploration of the simple ways you can help find greater happiness and satisfaction in your marriage and family. Packard says, “While the idea of happy ever after is distorted, you can, in fact, achieve a Family Ever After.”Family Ever After brings time-tested and well-researched principles to family life to help you learn specific ways to improve your marriage and your family, whether that family is ordinary or extraordinary. Using real-world examples of best practices and helping woman readjust their media-driven perception of what happily ever after means, Family Ever After gives readers a pragmatic, helpful, and entertaining exploration of: ·How happiness in marriage and family life requires a more educated, real-world perspective ·How proper prioritization and defining what’s important in marriage and family is key to success; ·Why conflict is part of an ordinary family experience and how to peacefully resolve it; ·How to cultivate a sense of humor; ·How to develop a thoughtful and sincere habit of complimenting each member of your family; ·How to improve family relationships with extended family members; and ·Learning how to love a family member in the way they understand and accept that loveMore than another how-to-have-a-perfect-family book, Family Ever After helps you gain the understanding and the practical skills of what makes ordinary families successful. Family Ever After is an essential and beautiful resource for all women who want to put more happiness in theirs and their family’s life.

With more than 200 unique quotations, The Quotable Dad shares thoughts, ideas, humor, and advice from the best minds of the ages for the most challenging situations that come with being a dad. Aperfect gift for Father’s Day or any day when one wants to celebrate their dad.“Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough.”—Wilhelm Busch

Have you ever experienced a moment in your life when you began to appreciate the stories and lessons your parents might have shared with you? Perhaps it was a moment quietly working when your father told you of his painful experience during WWII; or when your mother taught you about beauty while picking daffodils for her neighbor; or when in a moment of tragedy you recall how your parents handled something so difficult with such poise and strength that it helped you go on? Our culture and our history is created through stories, personal stories, whether funny or sad, light or difficult, poignant or profound. Lessons From My Parents has collected 100 such stories from writers from across the world and shares them in this seminal work celebrating the life lessons we learn without even realizing it.

“In 1960 my father got into a rowboat from Havana, Cuba and rowed 90 miles to the United States to start his new life. By the time I got into seventh grade, I was telling my friends that my father saved all of his family, all of his friends, piled everyone into that boat and rowed everybody over to America. By the time I got into high school, I was telling my friends that my father stole five boats from Castro’s navy, saved all of his friends, all of his family, all of his first, second, third, fourth, and fifth cousins, everyone on his block, all of the pets, and everybody on his baseball team. He piled them into the boat. There was no room for him in the boat, so he tied those boats together with a big rope, put that rope around his shoulders and he swam everybody over to the United States. . .” Born in Boston to a Cuban father and an Irish-American mother, Antonio Sacre is one of the few leprecanos on the national speaking circuit. Using his own personal history and telling the stories that audiences across the nation have found so captivating and wonderful, this award-winning storyteller and author weaves the Spanish language, Cuban and Mexican customs, and Irish humor into an unforgettable book of humor, inspiration, tradition, and family.My Name is Cool is a classic story sure to transcend, like the author himself, cultures and boundaries.

A delightful and true story of growing up with a sister with Asperger’s, The Crystal Puzzle chronicles powerful family experiences from the realization that there was something different about her sister through the hopes and joys and challenges of school to the eventual independence that comes with growing apart as one sister moves on and out of the home. Blogger Ashley Nance offers an accurate, humorous, touching, and poignant glimpse into the lives of those affected by Asperger’s and learning disabilities.Crystal Puzzle also includes a helpful resource section for families interested in additional information to help them cope and succeed given the challenges that come with Asperger’s and other learning disabilities.

The Quotable Scouter communicates the values that have been upheld by the scouting movement ever since Robert Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys in 1908. These values, so critical to our nation and world, are worth exploring repeatedly as we work to develop strong character in ourselves and the young people we serve. ·Trust ·Loyalty ·Helping ·Friendship ·Courtesy ·Kindness ·Obedience ·Cheerfulness ·Thrift ·Bravery ·Cleanliness ·Reverence

Wondering what you are in for as you move to your first military base, or as you try to recover from numerous deployments? Deployed is the perfect solution for every member of a military family who wants a healthy family. From the time you finish boot camp to the time you return from your last deployment, this book provides principles that will guide you in your journey through family life in the military. In the face of extended war, record high divorces, and combat stress, professional on-base counselor Dr. Stanley Hall gives answers and directions for wading through it all and finding more happiness and success in your military family than you ever imagined.