Dictionary Reviews

I often travel to Europe. Hop the trains with my Eurail Pass and hit as many countries as I can in less than 10 days.

On one trip I took about 6 different phrase books with me and wrapped them all up with a rubber band. Too bulky!

What's better for European travelers are phrase books with multiple languages. The European Menu Translator fits perfectly in a backpack and even in your back pocket.

Great reference for eating out all over Western Europe.

If I had one criticism, it would be that they might want to include a couple more languages. Maybe expand it a bit and include some other important Euro languages, like Dutch, Czech, or even Russian. Certainly Greek should be added.

But otherwise great job Galbraiths!

Collaboratively written by Whitney and Anne Galbraith, European Menu Translator is a "user friendly" pocket-sized dictionary specifically designed for tourists and travelers seeking to understand the specialized cuisine terminology of France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. A brief introduction to the fine dining basics of each nation supplements the lists of alphabetically arranged terms, subdivided by language. European Menu Translator is an excellent and very highly recommended reference whether when dining abroad or simply eating at a European-style restaurant here at home.

This is an excellent travel book. Because it is small, it's easy to tuck in your purse, back pack or whatever. It's so thorough it makes the most of each meal on the road. It can bring a great new dimension to eating in countries with French, German, Spanish or Italian menus!

It's so inexpensive, it's a great bon voyage gift for a friend or for yourself.
We love ours!
Julie & Peter Dawson.

I am a licensed interpreter. I am continually analyzing words in order to interpret them. This is the best word reference book I have ever owned. I wanted to buy a couple copies for gifts and was disappointed to find out it was out of print. If you can find a copy, grab it.

I have written a dictionary and have studied them for years. In my opinion, the R. D. Word Finder is one of the very best books of its type. What I particularly like about the book is the care with which commonly confused words are disambiguated. See, for instance, the distinction explained between strategy and tactic. Then compare the distinction made in RDWF with what is commonly presented in most other word references. I think you will then see that the RDWF is really quite good.

This is the most functional thesaurus that I have ever used. I attempted to buy one for my entire family, and learned that it was out of print. Reader's Digest should reprint another edition for all word lovers.

Excellent reader for beginners. It is broken in to "tense" sections, i.e. present tense, past, subjunctive, etc. I read it outloud with my tutor and it is very helpful. I would highly recommend it.

Classy and elegant are the first words that come to mind upon going through the first few pages of this book.

The book is a selection of stories, or their portions, from the original literature, ranging from the medieval times to the first half of the 20th century, and covering both Spanish and Latin American authors. In addition, it has an occasional interlude consisting of a short poem or a selection of proverbs to tempt the neophite into further exploring the richness of the Spanish language. Being a dual-langage book, the english translation of a story appears on a facing page. I found the translation of varying utility in nailing down the nuances, but the glossary at the end of the book is quite good, so one can read without a separate dictionary at least on the first pass.

The book generally avoids the use of subjunctive and introduces the past tense only in the middle. I had thought that this would make the stories look emaciated, as is the case with a number of such readers I'd seen. Somehow, it does not happen with Flores' delightful volume; if anything, it drives the point home that verbs is not all there is to a language, rich vocabulary and phraseology are just as important, and Flores' selections definitely get across that aspect of the beauty and expressiveness of the Spanish language.

As you work through this reader, more likely than not, your motivation to keep going with your Spanish and, furthermore, to get familiar with its rich literature, will be reinforced tremendously. It will also encourage you to venture into unabridged novels and stories in Spanish sooner than you had thought possible.

Finally, an attractive price helps make it a real winner.

Although there are some mistakes which my mexican tutor vigorously pointed out years ago (Cefiro doesn't mean zephyr in spanish or central america, or something like that),this is more than anything an entertaining book. "Why some people don't figure in the census" is just about as entertaining a short story as any american modernist could write in two pages and the surreal "the Switchman" gives the beginning reader a chance to see a creepy Kafka-like story in spooky, creative, poetic, spanish. Yet with respect especially toward this last story is that right in the middle of the book it stops being a beginners' book. I think that the second half of it should be read in english - depending on the persons' desire or time spent learning the lanuage,- and read in spanish months later: The latter half of the book contains relatively difficult stories with specific and scarcely used words.

Yet at the same time this is really the only good thing about these dual language books: - to reach real foreign literature by means of, in our case, English ; to think that by simply glancing over to the other page one can fool one's inherent english syntax into conjuring itself up as spanish. Will this yield a result?;- expecting the clarifaction of words and relatively obscure grammar(DISIMULAR- to overlook; LO DE MAIZ- the corn affair) which are not simple to suddenly become simple in a first readers' book for beginners is silly. But the stories! This is a fountainhead book one can always go back to for grammar and those words(horquilla - pitchfork, perito-expert, avena - oat) that aren't used daily and a glossary that can be easily found in a BINDING that two angry wrestlers contemplating the book as a wishbone would have trouble unlacing! This book would also, I imagine, help Germans or French who are forced into learning spanish as a third language refresh their memory by dint of the stories' inherent charm and wit.

I recall one story where a women is referred to as "lista" - at MY own slovenly and innocent first glance it was rendered only "smart" or "alive" , but after many rereadings the connotation "sly" reared its head and a simple parable, though yes only a parable, took on a more shrewd and teasing meaning. Any future student of spanish will be faced with false cognates and problems such as those addressed in this book, and yet it solves these problems without being irritating.

The connotations and simple double-meanings I have mentioned permeate the book, and I am sure the meanings of many -especially those of el guardigujas- will continue alluding me for some time to come.

This book should be given to all high school students harboring intentions to study spanish.It is nothing less than a linguistic phenomenon,- a jewel.

This is an excellent reference book! It has passed the test of heavy usage, and it has outlasted many academic fads.

Smyth does a thorough yet concise job on the known varieties of written Greek usage from the Homeric epics up to the beginning of the Hellenistic period .

Smyth does not cover Hellenistic (Koiné) Greek as much, especially not for texts that have Semitic or Egyptian "flavors:" the Septuagint, New Testament and Egyptian Greek papyri. For real grammars on those, look up these authors: Wallace, Dana, Mantey, Robertson, Blass, Debrunner, Funk, Conybeare, Stock and Zerwick.

Some writers in the centuries between the reigns of Augustus and Constantine, and the Byzantines afterward, tried to "return" to Classical Attic usage in writing, with mixed results. When reading them, use both Smyth and a Hellenistic/Koiné grammar together, carefully.

This specific edition of the book is a joy. The brilliant oxblood leather cover, the cream-colored pages, intoxicating in their aroma. You think I'm a fool, but this book is a dream. And as a grammar, it's indispensable. Read what the other reviewers have said, then read what I have and decide: is $30 too much to spend for such a valuable reference, and so beautiful a book besides? I think not.

Smyth is the only grammar for ancient Greek worth buying (besides the advanced treatments of specialized topics like Goodwin on the moods and tenses and Denniston on the particles). Unlike Latin, where the field of grammars is much wider, Smyth is the only English grammar of ancient Greek comprehensive enough to warrant any attention from Hellenists. Goodwin and Gulick's volume is too sparse in comparison (but note they cover prosody and Smyth does not) while Kaegi's is a step below theirs in depth. Ideally all intermediate level Greek students will begin to use this text as a reference grammar. Very reasonably priced for the wealth of information it contains. The book itself is also durable and will endure years of constant thumbing.

I am still using this book and it is much better than other books about Finnish. Both the text and the exercise books are divided into short chapters with just enough material for a lesson. The Exercise book contains lots of good practice. You should get the cassettes since this will increase memorization and improve pronunciation. Once you finish this course I think you will have a good understanding of Finnish. Finnish is a unique language. It is quite different from English and may seem hard but once you understand a little how it works it should become easier. For beginners I would recommend studying one unit for three days to a week and then have a short review. Then proceed to the next unit and do likewise. Stick to it, go slowly, and study at your own pace. I hope this will be of help.

This is an excellent book, even though the example texts are getting a little dated. The book goes from zero to a reasonable grasp of Finnish in forty chapters. Each chapter is short enough to cover thoroughly in one lesson (in a teacher-led environment) and clearly focused on a single gramatical point (as a rule). They are also short and focused enough that the self-studier can feel they have really grasped the material. The book concentrates on written Finnish, but there is enough about the spoken language to help the student in the later transition to the 'real thing.' This is as close as language learning gets to painless !

Lots of exercises, non-technical and easy to understand language...a real boon for those who are truly interested in learning Finnish on their own.

This is easily the best organized grammar reference among the five I have collected over the years. I guess I keep purchasing grammar books in the hope that one will actually make sense of the subject. In sum, I find I have two other French grammar books in English (Berlitz French Grammar and "The Ultimate French Review & Practice") plus two more texts in French.

The French grammars (Sorbonne, McGraw Hill) are fine, but not if you are in a hurry for an answer.

This book, French Reference Grammar, is thick and comprehensive, with a superb index. It also makes good use of tabular presentations.

If you have a specific problem in mind, you can find the answer fastest in the book. But once you locate the explanation you may find it pretty hard to understand. The text is so utterly codified, such an exercise in verbal algebra, that it is often difficult to follow.

I sometimes wonder why these books do not diagram sentences. Grammar is a machine. Verbal descriptions of machines are often gibberish. A picture might work better.

The most helpful French grammar book in English, in my experience, is "The Ultimate..." perhaps because it does such a good job of integrating examples from everyday speech with formal grammatical rules. But it wouldn't hurt to pick up both of these books.

Berlitz's French Grammar is more compact and very good, full of short cuts and keyword hints, but it uses a few terms peculiar to the Berlitz teaching method, and the organization is not at all clear.

This reference sets an example for logical organization.

I had Dr. Calvez for advanced French grammar at Clemson University. He is a great professor and his text lives up to its title as "A Complete Handbook of the French Language."

This book is a true masterpiece of clarity. I recommend this book for anyone struggling to learn and master the intricacies of the french language. The explanations will quickly clear up any ambiguities you may have and set you on the path to fluency. As an adjunt, I suggest you take a look at "side by side, english and french grammar" also available here at amazon. Learning french is hard work. remember, the best way to increase fluency is to practice, and practice more! Speak as much as you can, and most importantly...READ! Reading is the ONLY way to build vocabulary and aids you greatly in becoming familiar with language patterns.

This is yet another Italian cookbook suffering from poor proofreading and kitchen testing (judging from the severe errors in the one recipe I've tried so far, the Polenta with meat sauce). I don't see how they could invest so much money in beautiful photography and printing and yet completely drop the ball in what matters most, making it easy and pleasant to generate the meals.

Of course, that doesn't matter most in selling the book off the shelf, so publishers are getting away with it. But I will gripe here when I have a chance and punish them for their oversight. (The thing could have been done in half the time, with a third the salt, and anyone trying it would realize this immediately once it was too late...) I also want preparation times in my recipes and make-ahead and storage/leftover notes.

Otherwise this book is beautiful and has one tempting page after another with plenty of useful Italian translations and an encyclopedia of ingredients and wine all of which sold me the book and I am generally happy enough with it. But I will defensively make the recipes from now on, now that my trust has been violated.

Being a huge fan of Italian cooking (and quite a good novice in my own right) I was very eager to find a good cookbook on the subject especially after returning from a month long culinary tour of the pennisula in November. Well, I hit the jackpot when a friend presented me with a copy of Gastronomy of Italy. It is a simple, beautifully written and presented book on the foods of Italy. Anybody who is looking for a really good book on Italian cooking need look no further than this. I spent over 3 hours on the first evening just savoring the recipes and drooling over the photographs!! Bella! Enjoy. Scott

Being a huge fan of Italian cooking (and quite a good novice in my own right) I was very eager to find a good cookbook on the subject especially after returning from a month long culinary tour of the pennisula in November. Well, I hit the jackpot when a friend presented me with a copy of Gastronomy of Italy. It is a simple, beautifully written and presented book on the foods of Italy. Anybody who is looking for a really good book on Italian cooking need look no further than this. I spent over 3 hours on the first evening just savoring the recipes and drooling over the photographs!! Bella! Enjoy. Scott

The workbooks of Dr. Maceri are wonderful....I was in his classes for two years and he made learning Spanish fun and easy. His workbooks do the same....they present information in a logical and easy to understand format that seems to be missing from so many other Spanish textbooks and workbooks. Now I am at a different university and my girlfriend is taking Spanish and WAS having a hard time in her class...I know Spanish and even I couldn't understand her book.....so I ordered this workbook for her. As soon as she read it everything was clear and became easy for her as well. Buen trabajo Dr. Maceri
Senor Lunatico

I have found Dr. Maceri's Spanish Workbook very helpful. Where our regular text left off, the workbook picked up. It clarifies the important points of Spanish. He breaks it down into everyday language with everyday examples.Without the bookbook, I would have been lost. This book will help you even if you wish to teach yourself Spanish.

As a Spanish student I have used Dr. Maceri's text and found it most effective. It's repetitive style makes it easy to remember certain points of grammar in the language. I had taken Spanish classes in high school and found grammar a very difficult aspect. This text is full of examples and excellent explanations. I would recommend this book to EVERYONE. Muy Bien Sr. Maceri! Srta. Ross, 101

A straightforward, modern introduction to the language. Dwyer provides both romanized transcriptions and Gujarati script for the first half of the book, then relies entirely on Gujarati script for the second half. Note that the book is available both with and without accompanying cassettes.

My girlfriend and I both are using Rachel Dwyer's book to improve our Gujarati. I come from a Gujarati background and can read the script. I use the book to address all my grammar problems with gender and verb agreement. My girlfriend, who does not have a Gujarati background, uses the book as an introduction to the language and has found the English transliterations which appear next to the Gujarati script especially useful. As a comparison, Kirit N. Shah's "Learn Gujarati" is geared towards children, has a superior section on learning the script and has a nice little collection of poetry in the back. But Dwyer's book is by far the best book in print for an adult trying to learn the grammar.

A garam jalebi of a book

Over the last 20 years (or so) I've sent corrective notes to Leslie Halliwell and the subsequent editor, John Walker. For the premiere film encyclopedia, the Filmgoers Companion still has lots of errors, missing information for supposedly complete filmographies, and many many unlisted film stars, especially from the "transition period" to talkies (Anita Page, etc.). Personally, I think Walker was a very bad choice; he doesn't seem to be "into" the encyclopedic format of this valuable resource.

I would say that this is certainly the flimgoer's encyclepidea to all things related to movies and the people involved in creating them. As far as knowlage about films goes. I would say this is impressive and is recommended to any serious film buffs out there.

If you need a new edition of this work, try Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies.