"Animals are the source of some of our most imaginative and persistent fantasies, and these fantasies are the only way most of us ever get to escape from our urbanized and domesticated lives into a larger world," writes Richard Conniff in the introduction to Every Creeping Thing. But Conniff, author of Spineless Wonders, has some rather strange ideas of the kinds of animals we might want to daydream about. Take the little brown bat ... please: "When their mouths are open and their insect-gnashing teeth exposed, they look like the sort of particularly unpleasant lap dog that a Barbie doll would have in her spiteful and neglected old age."

Conniff lovingly describes the habits of grizzlies, mice, cormorants, weasels, sharks, porcupines, moles, snapping turtles, and other underappreciated critters, including the scientists and fanciers who pay attention to these animals. In deadpan prose, Conniff describes the decorative nature of bloodhound slobber ("It hangs down in ropes from the upper lips, or flews, and sometimes gets festooned between the lip and the end of either ear.") and the distinctive mating call of the porcupine ("It is like a baby whimpering from a dream that is bad and getting worse... "). Every Creeping Thing is a delightful, yet far too short, tour of our love-hate relationship with some "faintly repulsive wildlife." --Therese Littleton

This quirky and eclectic collection will open your eyes to a whole world of things you didn't know you didn't know and have you peppering your conversation with such diverse trivia as political nicknames, unusual weapons, notable cat lovers and heroic animals. This attractive volume includes snippets of classic Brewers phrase and fable as well as stranger-than-fiction facts, amusing anecdotes, quotations and weird news items. Amongst the pages you may encounter: the champagne monk - glow-in-the-dark testicles four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie - Big Bertha Nostradamus - the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra - the Harmonious Breakfast Gris-jambon Vert - Kruptadia - Monsieur Mangetout the Dog of God - Indian Jasmine

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'Author' Molly and her team of Best Mates offer their advice on bidding for superstardom. In these days of Pop Idol, Pop Rivals, etc, fame is more attainable, and more desirable, than ever. Will feature 'What kind of megastar are you?' quiz, perilous pitfalls on the way to the top troubleshooting chapter, tips for making it in TV, music, film, fashion, etc, Hi there! We're your new Best Mates and we're here to advise you on wicked ways to make the most of your star potential. And if you thought it was just a case of singing along to your fave boy band, then think again. Prepare to be centre stage as we present the best ideas to make sure you the most talked-about celeb in the land. And whether you're a super-starlet, or just faintly famous we'll show you how to cope with the pressure. What more does a girl need?!!

Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Faintly," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Faintly in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Faintly when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Faintly, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain.

Equal parts fiction, poetry, autobiography and myth, these distilled stories follow a girl named June in search of her own beginning. They are coming of age stories, in which sexual and romantic underpinnings force June, both waking and dreaming, to struggle with her identity as a real person as well as a scripted character. While she sometimes appears to be no more than the sound of her own name, observant and deeply aware, she is grounded in the textured inner landscape that is her entire existence. Drawing on the irrational but evocative properties of sound and rhythm, rich in imagery, these writings employ a syntax of sensation — pleasure, desire, anguish — that graphs the nerves beneath the skin. In her small, fabled world, June’s closest friends are a man who wears a monocle and a red chair that struts about and misbehaves in a way June can only dream of.

There are moments in June's narratives, both for June and the reader, when the whole world drops away, and one realizes suddenly what it means to fall in some obediently human way. It is from these unfixable points that June considers herself, and all that happens — or waits in constant deferral — to happen.