If you've ever wondered whether carrots improve your vision (they do) and why elephants have great memories, consult A Word to the Wise. You'll discover that it's never too late to learn from a proverb or an old wives' tale. This captivating book is a fascinating compilation of age-old expressions and customs, and its insights cover everything from health tips and kitchen tricks to gardening know-how and hints for predicting the weather. Folklorist Ruth Binney explains the truth behind such traditions as polishing windows with newspaper and blowing out birthday candles in a single breath. She also discusses whether classic adages are still relevant or, like eating oysters only in "R" months, their truths have faded with the passage of time. This charmingly illustrated volume of enduring wisdom makes a splendid keepsake as well as a fine gift.

A Word to the Wise: Traditional Advice and Old Country Ways

Parenting & Relationships

Binney, Ruth

Reference

Dover Publications

From time immemorial, people have sought to understand the mysteries of the natural world, giving rise to a wealth of myths and legends connected to plant life. In addition to their imaginative appeal, these oral traditions offered practical advice about which flowers, trees, and plants could provide foods, remedies, and construction materials. This richly illustrated volume provides a treasury of ancient wisdom, exploring the sound principles behind traditional advice, along with a wealth of fanciful beliefs. Naturalist Ruth Binney recounts charming examples of floral symbolism, linking roses with romance, lilies with purity, and poppies with sleep. She examines tree lore and the association of trees with wisdom and knowledge, from the coveted crown of laurel awarded to ancient Greek poets and Roman generals to the palm branches presented to pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. A survey of the power of plants ranges from the rituals that ensure a good harvest and a newly married couple's fertility to the healing qualities of oil of cloves for toothache, cherries for gout, and aloe vera for burns. Abounding in fascinating facts and fancies, this absorbing compilation will captivate lovers of plants and gardens.

Plant Lore and Legend: The Wisdom and Wonder of Plants and Flowers Revealed

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

What makes owls wise and foxes sly? How did the lion become the king of beasts, and why do serpents symbolize evil? This survey of legends, folk tales, myths, and superstitions chronicles the human fascination with the animal kingdom. Assembled by a noted naturalist, Ruth Binney, this charmingly illustrated collection abounds in animal lore from around the world and throughout history. Binney provides captivating examples of attempts to explain nature's wonders and mysteries with animal-related proverbs and folk wisdom. She explores the historic associations of wild and domestic animals with kindling romance, bringing good and bad luck, and fostering improved health, as well as their roles in forecasting weather and serving as omens of everything from sudden wealth to imminent death. A gallery of mythical figures features dragons, werewolves, mermaids, and other creatures with supernatural powers. Brimming with enchantment, this compilation of folkloric traditions will delight animal lovers of every stripe!

Animal Lore and Legend: The Wisdom and Wonder of Animals Revealed

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The Rand McNally Atlas of the Body and Mind is an exciting account of man's knwoledge of himself. The complexity and beauty of the human machine are presented here in a new and imaginitive way. More than four hundred photographs and illustrations combine with a comprehensive text to map the elaborate interactions of the mind and body -- from the workings of the simplest cell and the integrated major body systems to psychological functions such as intelligence, memory and emotion.

The Rand McNally atlas of the body and mind

Janson, Michael - Editors

Atlases & Maps

Rand-McNally

A light-hearted compendium of sayings, aphorisms and traditional wisdom mixing a host of subjects from popular science to gardening, health, cooking and the countryside. Each entry shows how the advice came into popular use and explains the scientific logic behind the saying--in most cases proving it sound. Additional information related to the saying can then lead the reader off in many directions. Covering a wide range of topics from the natural world (interpreting the behavior of plants and animals) to useful household tips, health issues, invaluable gardening tips, food and cooking advice and the sense behind manners and customs, this is a book that can appeal to anyone and everyone. Light in style but with a solid historical and scientific heart, this is a book that will draw readers in and hold them for hours.

Wise Words and Country Ways

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

David&Charles

-Attractive format and affordable price; makes an ideal gift 
-Instantly absorbing topic 
-A fascinating mix of traditions, sayings, history, and science Love, Luck &amp; Lessons for Life is a fascinating and instantly absorbing miscellany of popular sayings, aphorisms, and customs as well as the wisdom and history behind them. 
When exploring the pages, readers will encounter the background and reasoning behind some of the best-known traditions and universal themes in life, from predicting the name of future lovers and understanding the traditions of marriage, to such sound advice as "don't walk under ladders" and charms and potions for health. 
This attractive and fun-to-browse book is an ideal gift for anyone with an interest in customs, folklore, and sayings.

Love, Luck & Lessons For Life

Trying to understand the ways of the natural world has been a human preoccupation since the earliest times. The knowledge of which animals were helpful and which were dangerous, which plants had the power to heal and soothe and which to harm and kill was of obvious importance, not only to learn, but to remember and pass on.
It is therefore hardly surprising that from all corners of the earth, a wealth of stories, signs, symbols, myths and legends about animals and plants have been passed down to us. There are sound principles in some of the traditional advice, wisdom in many of the stories and observations of nature, but there are also highly fanciful superstitions, tall stories and amusing anecdotes. Ruth Binney has collected them all into this entertaining and fascinating volume.
Nature's Ways is a fascinating and absorbing miscellany of traditional wisdom, stories, signs and symbols of the natural world. There are intriguing tales of everything from mythical monsters and magical plants to domestic pets and humble weeds, as well as generations of advice, both sound and dubious, from age-old country remedies to predicting the weather through the observation of nature.

Natures Ways: Lore, Legend, Fact and Fiction

'The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways' is a unique and fascinating collection of accumulated wisdom, old wives' tales and gardening proverbs.

The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways

David & Charles, Ltd.

Wise Words & Country Ways

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Binney, Ruth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Binney, Ruth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Binney, Ruth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Word to the Wise: Traditional Advice and Old Country Ways

Plant Lore and Legend: The Wisdom and Wonder of Plants and Flowers Revealed

Animal Lore and Legend: The Wisdom and Wonder of Animals Revealed

The Rand McNally atlas of the body and mind

The Rand McNally atlas of the body and mind

Wise Words and Country Ways

Love, Luck & Lessons For Life

Natures Ways: Lore, Legend, Fact and Fiction

The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways

Wise Words & Country Ways