Drawing on first-hand ethnographic data, field interviews with interpreters, interviewers and decision-makers, observations and off-record comments, The Asylum Speaker examines discursive processes in the asylum procedure and the impact these processes may have on the determination of refugee status. The book starts from the assumption that far-reaching legal decisions often have to be made on very limited grounds. Unable to submit any evidence to substantiate their case, the only chance that many asylum seekers have is to argue their case during the oral hearings with public officials at the different asylum agencies. Maryns investigates the performance of the asylum seeker during these interviews and analyzes the relationship between narrative structuring and gradations of linguistic competence. She explores a number of related questions: first, how the interaction between applicants and public officials proceeds; second, how this interaction forms the discursive input into long and complicated textual trajectories, and third, how the outcome of these discursive processes affects the assessment of asylum applications. Maryns demonstrates how propositional aspects play a crucial role in the asylum procedure whereas little attention is paid to narrative-linguistic diversity and multilingual speaker repertoires. Her analysis reveals how insufficient insight into the linguistic structure and narrative features of the asylum account often results in a deficient processing of important details.

Stroll back in time for a lighthearted view of advertising at its best and worst from 1890 to 1910. This historical scrapbook showcases more than 600 advertisements by well-known companies such as Cadillac, Pillsbury, and Remington. It also includes ads for now-defunct products — the Talk-o-phone, velvet-grip garters, and other curiosities.

We all have a story to tell! They are all unique. No two are the same. Each is special; they are full of memories, of learning experiences, of things encountered along the way""some tragic and difficult, some fascinating and exciting. Certainly each story is valuable to someone. Life stories are full of mentors, both good and bad, people with tremendous influence who perhaps changed the pathway of one's life. I have had many mentors over the years. You will read about them! My Life, Does It Really Matter is my story. I loved writing it. As the distant memories came together in my mind, the details took shape, and often I was taken back to "the moment," and the emotions took over. As I wrote my story, I realized that there was a thread that wound through the years that held me together and brought me along the way. You can have the same thread! It will change your life! Insight One day at Starbucks, Dick Craig told his "career story" to some of us friends. An underlying theme in his life story stood out. God was working in Dick Craig's life from way back then and clearly all the way through. The truth shouts out. So now Dick had captured the story on paper; hence, family, friends, and everyone else can grasp that careful involvement. Dick's story reveals many lessons. From a distance, we also get an insight. "Many things happen for a reason and a purpose," even when we don't see it at the time. Our heavenly Parent is nurturing us for eternity. Many readers will have felt God's involvement in their life. If not, this book may now awaken their awareness. - Dennis O'Neill, Business Growth Coach, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, Canada

The cofounder of Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, and Walking Papers shares what the hard-knock rock life has taught him about how to be a good dude (in spite of it all). One wouldn't usually turn to a veteran of Guns N' Roses for advice on how to live, but Duff McKagan is not a typical rock musician. As chronicled in the New York Times bestseller It's So Easy (and other lies), Duff got sober at thirty, went back to school, got smart about money, fell in love, became a father, and got his life back on track. Through trial and considerable error, Duff has learned to strike the balance between family and work, travel and contentment, financial aptitude and sacrifice. In How to Be a Man (and other illusions), Duff takes the reader into the life of an international rock musician and shares, with disarming candor and humor, the solid life lessons he's learned along the way to success and fulfillment in both his family life and his career. From hard-won advice on such basics as starting with a strong base and staying humble, to techniques on how to stave off depression and transform darker impulses into something productive, How to Be a Man is the ultimate guide to rocking life -- not as a dissolute train-wreck "rock star," but as a man destined for success and longevity.