Unsurprisingly, Oprah has a few book picks for Summer - 25 to be exact and a nice assortment. Here are three I will likely pick up:

A Meaningful Life by L.J. Davis
A reissue of L.J. Davis's 1971 comic novel in which a plumbing magazine editor and frustrated novelist takes on the renovation of a run-down mansion in a Brooklyn slum.

Plan Bee by Susan Brackney
There is some cause for alarm at the rate at which bees are disappearing around the world. Brackney, a beekeeper, illuminates the nature of this hero of the food chain.

Farm City by Novella Carpenter
A food writer's memoir of her squatter's garden in an Oakland, California ghetto is an inspiration to anyone who wishes to pursue the agricultural dream while remaining in the city limits.

Oprah's 25 Summer Book Picks

from @ About.com Contemporary Literature

Filed under: Contemparary Literature, Writing | Article tags: books, Contemparary Literature, fiction, freeleance, literature, writing

Learning any language takes practice - lots of practice! Often, it's difficult to know what you should practice.

• Should you watch a video?
• Perhaps, it would be a good idea to do a few quizzes.
• Of course, you should try to speak English with your friends.

All of these are great ideas, but it's also important to build a routine. A routine will help you make studying English a habit. That's the best way to improve your English! Beginning Level Study Skills Intermediate Level Study Skills

from @ About.com English as 2nd Language

Filed under: English as a 2nd Language, Writing | Article tags: fiction, freeleance, languages, learning English, learning languages, literature, teaching English, writing

Some of you may remember a blog post in April responding to a question from Jason, an Iraq War veteran who was working on his descriptions. The post inspired a...

from @ About.com Fiction Writing

Filed under: Fiction Writing, Writing | Article tags: fiction, fictional writing, freeleance, literature, story telling, writing, writing stories

This overview chart shows the positive, negative and interrogative (question) forms of all the principal tenses in English with a brief description of the principal usage. The timeline tenses chart provides a handy visual reference sheet to English tenses and their relationship to the past, present and future. Included you will find active, passive, simple and continuous forms positioned according to their occurrence in time. Once your feel comfortable with your tenses, try these tense review quizzes: Past Forms Future Forms Past or Perfect?

from @ About.com English as 2nd Language

Filed under: English as a 2nd Language, Writing | Article tags: fiction, freeleance, languages, learning English, learning languages, literature, teaching English, writing

Proper accreditation can mean the difference between a degree that gets you a new job and a certificate that isn't worth the paper it's printed on. If you have the right tools, you can check any school's accreditation status in less than a minute. This article will show you how to find out if a school is accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education.

See Also:

• Distance Learning Accreditation Basics
• Understanding Regional Accreditation

from @ About.com Distance Learning

Filed under: Distance Learning, Writing | Article tags: Education, fiction, freeleance, learning, literature, writing