Dictionary Reviews

I can't rate this book highly enough. I had looked at several different Hebrew books to try to teach myself Biblical Hebrew. Each book started off with teaching you the names of the letters and so on. This book doesn't bog you down with technicalities to start with. It launches you right into learning to read Hebrew.

For example, in the first chapter you are introduced to three letters. You are taught the sounds and some vowels. It is very simple, yet you learn quickly and find that you are actually reading real Hebrew words by the end of the first chapter! That is so encouraging when you're just starting out.

I have seen Hebrew language books that don't even teach you how to write the Hebrew by hand, which is much different than the formal typed Hebrew. This is necessary, and this book also includes directions on how to write the letters. Exercises are varied and comprehensive and include writing, reading, creating words, adding vowels, etc. There's even some humor in a few of the exercises.

The back cover of the book folds out to include charts that will help, too.

From this 92-page book, I taught myself to read Hebrew. I recommend it above all the others you may find here. It's also one of the least expensive. Additionally, you can also purchase tapes from EKS Publishing. They have many more Hebrew books for when you have mastered this one. This is the one to get.

I first started reading this book via a Jewish study class and I found it quite comprehensive, while not insulting one's intelligence. The practice exercises help quite a bit, and they draw upon previous lessons so as to bring together everything learned up to a certain point. Please keep in mind that this book does not teach you how to translate modern Hebrew. It is good if you want to begin learning Hebrew, but don't expect to be able to order a falafel on the streets of Haifa after finishing this book. Essentially, this book provides the base for the house, but you'll need further reading to build on that house in terms of modern language translation. That having been said, I still highly recommend that one has this book if you're either beginning the study of Hebrew or are reacquainting yourself with it.

I taught myself to read Hebrew in several weeks using this little book. The material is exceptionally well paced; each chapter introduces just the right amount of new material and reinforces previously learned letters. This is the best book I've found for adults who want to learn Hebrew.

This detailed book that contains 6000 heavily interpreted personal names is likely the biggest book collection of African personal names. Just as with his other books on names, written quite recently, Musere goes into dedicated detail in showing aspects like the origin of the name and the meanings (which can be one or many). A lot of the names are shown to be associated with aspects like proverbs, significant occurences and traditions. African names are shown to be unique in that analyzing them provides a wealth of information concerning cultural practice, migration, and assimilation. This is a study and naming guide that gives detailed examples of God/ Goddess, war, natural phenomena, and season related personal names. Many are examples of names that depict the behavioral characteristics, physiological or physical condition of the newborn. Indeed many African names illustrate the state of mind of the namer, states of bereavement or jubilation, and so forth. This book is heavily referenced and indexed unlike most other books on African names.

"...the topic [of personal African names] is sufficiently rarely treated as to merit close attention. ...[The book's] introduction is a splendidly informative essay. In it [Musere] explores the origins of African names. Just as we have many names revealing the activities of our ancestors, such as Archer, Fisher, Smith, Taylor and many others, the same applies to African names. [Musere] gives examples such as canoe builders, executioners, rain-makers and cattle-keepers. The reverence for human relationships is perpetuated in many names, while a variety of birds, animals, fish, trees and other natural phenomena are the bases for others. Africa has long been one of my favourite continents and I have numbered many Africans among friends. ...Musisi means "earthquake" and...Bukenya means someone who acts ungraciously or reluctantly. ...Musere's book is packed with information and it is easy to consult. It is equipped with a useful index, so you can be directed to all those names derived, say from eating and harvesting, lakes and
roads, trees, witchcraft and a host of other topics and activities." K.C. Harrison, Founder President, Commonwealth Library Association in "Languages and Literature" Reference Reviews 14/5 [2000] 29-36.

"'A thorough exposure of African name meanings encourages and stimulates people of both African and non-African descent into feeling comfortable about taking on such names.' ...such as Sindushwa (I cannot be surpassed); Mbarushimana (God is on my side); Nkurunziza (Good news). ...Okot (Born during the rainy season). ...This is a fascinating book. ...it certainly brings home the fact, of which I was previously unaware, that the uses and the choices of names have quite different connotations and expectations in different societies." (Sheila Allcock, University of Oxford, in "African Research & Documentation" No. 85, 2001).

"Some examples are 'Libbila (m): setting sun; [name] given to one born at sunset'; 'Kimenyi (m): the one who knows a lot'; 'Shumpa (f): a name given to a child who is troublesome'; 'Baliza (f/m): they cause to weep [or mourn, or cry].' The 6000 [name] examples [in the book] are fascinating to read, and will most certainly open up a new area in the field of nomenclature. In addition, an interesting index will lead the user to specific works found in the definitions, such as lakes, plants, gardens, and food. This is an impressive volume and should fill a void in the area of etymology. It is highly recommended." (Carol Willsey Bell in "C&RL News," May 2000, pp.428-429).

We have gone through two previous editions of Crampton and Rees' exhaustive work (prior to the VH1 endorsement) in our household and will probably be buying this edition in the near future.

"Rock Stars Encyclopedia" contains entries on most of the major (and several minor) rock stars and acts, including time lines charting events in their respective careers such as personnel changes, deaths, album releases, single releases, and major concerts. I have seen one or two minor errors in the previous editions, yet the authors are kind enough to ask readers to submit corrections if any errors are seen in the text. Don't expect to be doing so however because these guys are right about 99.9% of the time.

This book is frequently resorted to as the final say in arguments between me and my son, a virtual expert in the field. It is invaluable to afficianados of modern music. I'd give this book 10 stars if I possibly could...it's that good!

I will keep this short. This is an excellent book, especially for those who may be aspiring music journalists like myself. For example, this book had more information about the late Donny Hathaway than any other work I've come across. When I flipped through it at my local bookstore and saw how big & detailed their Donny Hathaway section was, I was sold.

Refreshingly, this encyclopedia features a healthy balance of American and European popular acts, ultimately exposing you to many artists that you may have never heard of. Okay, I will concede that you may not find the most 'underground' musicicians in here, but hey - I was stunned to find the Brit pop/R&B group 'Five Star' in here. But then again - it's over 1000 pages - with pictures!

I have one question though - how could they forget Tony Toni Tone? They are one of the most influential soul/R&B BANDS (they played instruments) to come out of the 1980s and 1990s! But other than that major slip-up, this book will have a 95% chance of having what you're looking for, and those are pretty good odds if you ask me!

Vh1 does a Fantastic Job Here with this Book.Lots of Interesting Information&Very Well Detailed.it makes Sense since VH1 is alot more focused On Music than MTV Nowadays.It's A Great Read For The Music Lover.

It's a book that every baseball fan must have in your library. It's a MUST ! Nice pictures.

My husband loves this book and I actually started to get more interested in baseball. If I had to choose one sport to watch, it would be baseball or tennis. While I would rather be watching a romantic movie, this book was to say the least, entertaining.

When I showed this book to my husband, he was intrigued. I also immediately noticed the "inside of the baseball" picture and never realized how many layers there were. There is also a picture of the "type of hits" which was a bit enlightening for me, being I am a baseball newbie.

So, come and explore baseball in pictures. The equipment, history, teams, techniques, rules and personalities of America's National Pastime are all included. Do you want to know the secrets of the success of Major League players? Discover why baseball has been a important part of American life for more than 150 years? Well the concise text and carefully researched definitions are user-friendly for people of all ages. This is a source for the specialized vocabulary of baseball and I would recommend it to all wives who's husbands are baseball addicts, to young players and to all baseball fans.

I am in love with visual dictionaries at the moment. This one is packed with full-color photographs and hundreds of terms and historical facts. The comprehensive Index, Appendix and Glossary also direct you to the illustrations you are looking for.

In this book you will learn about the origins of the game, the Diamond, the rules, bats and balls, baseball gloves, uniforms, catcher's gear, fielding positions and techniques, batting, pitching, baserunning, managers and coaches, umpires, ballparks, keeping score, statistics, The American League, The National League, The World Series, The Baseball Hall of Fame, Baseball Cards (very important), youth baseball, softball games and baseball around the world.

Author James Buckley, Jr., is a veteran sportswriter. He has worked for Sports Illustrated and other national magazines for both adults and children. As a former youth baseball coach, he has also written many articles on baseball and other sports. He brings a wealth of knowledge to this book and is also the author of Super Shortstops, Strikeout Kings and Home Run Heroes.

My husband enjoyed adding this to his baseball book collection. He also collects baseball cards and I am starting to realize why they are so important to him.

The quality and beauty of this book are first-rate. As a long-time baseball fan myself, it is a pleasure to peruse this book's wealth of photographs and trivia that give baseball its unique richness. Even better, this book appears to be a useful tool in developing an appreciation of the game by my wife and children, who are actually fighting over who gets to read the book each night! Now we're ready for the season to begin! Play ball! Go Dodgers!

Sorenson's skill with textbook writing derives from an understanding of people and their problems with language. Only a master teacher could have written this guide.

I brought home a stack of library books about writing to help my son with high school writing assignments and research papers. Webster's was the only one he actually used. It is laid out nicely and helpful information is available in the kind of "bites" our kids are used to. It is now part of our home library. PS. A more lengthy perusal of the guidelines for various kinds of student writing would greatly benefit any student willing to put in some time to improve their skills and their grades.

This is the easiest and most useful reference available for teachers, students and parents. I have been using this book since'94 to help my children understand and exacute various kinds of writing assignments. Valuable from 4th grade through college level.

Alexander Danilov returns to his ancestral home in Georgia after 40+ years abroad to be spend time with his several-times-removed grandaughter before she dies of old age and to reclaim the family home. This was a wonderful vampire book with a touch of romance. The violence is graphic in some spots, but well worth reading. Cant' wait to read the next installment - These Fallen Angels.

Alexi Danilov, founder of the Danilov clan comes back to his domain only once in a generation. Like always the Danilovs are fighting each and themselves, but Alex wouldn't have it any other way. Unknown to him is the fact that he is being by a stalked an old enermy that is thought to be dead. This in fact is true. He like Alex is a vampire. This is to be his hardest challenge ever.

This is one of the best books i have ever read involving modern vampires, anne rice aside. This is a novel that goes for the thorat and doesn't let go. It is simialr to vc andrews with the step back art. Similar too, is the characters. I liked the bad girl where in this novel, you get two. It has a VERY good plot and story line. I look forward to the next one in the series. I think this author should replace the ghostwriter of vc andrews. she's that good.

I've been learning Thai on and off for a while now. When I was in Chiang Mai, I took courses at the AUA there (they were very good), and they roughly followed these books for the classes. From looking around both here and in Thailand, they are really the ONLY comprehensive set of books that teaches english speakers how to speak thai. I also believe that the few college courses in america that teach thai also use these books.

The books were published a long time ago, but they still work fine. We had a laugh in book 2 during one of the exercises where they were arguing between 8 baht and 9 baht for a taxi ride (a.k.a. 18 cents or 20 cents nowadays)

I started with book 2 because I was already partially conversational. The books include vocabular, tone exercises, dialog practices, reading for comprehension, and how to read and write the thai characters. Each book contains perhaps 20 lessons. The lessons are not especially subject oriented (i.e. chapter 8 foods), but rather they are more a progression of words and sentance structures that are used most frequently.

Anyways, buy them, go to thailand and take the classes, have fun.

I started learning thai with the AUA series and have gone through the three books. All build on each other in an orderly fashion, you really have the choice of just focusing on speaking or you can incorporate the reading/writing too. The only negative is that the vocabulary is often times not as useful. "A cow is smaller than a water buffalo" I combined this series with the Colliquial Thai course and the combo addressed each others weaknesses.

I studied this couse while in Thailand and can attest to it's effectiveness. As there is only one other review I thought a second might be helpful to an aspiring Thai learner. This course is for serious students though. Expect to spend about 100 hours+ per book and cassette pack. By the way... you must study with the tapes. It starts out with subject matter a little less useful than a guidebook because it presupposes that you are in it for the long haul and will pay your dues in order to REALLY learn Thai! But like I said "you need the tapes!" so here are the addresses if you can't find them on the net:U.S.+CANADA SEAP Publications, East Hill Plaza, Ithaaca, NY 14850 AUSTRALIA+NEW ZEALAND MIP Publications P.O. Box 416 Chatswood N.S.W. 2057 AUSTRALIA and from all other places THAI STUDIES DEPT> AUA Language Center 179 Rajadamri rd Bangkok 10330 Thailand

Excellent book for serious students of Spanish and treats the language at some depth. Includes usages from both Spain and Latin America in various registers. Words and and phrases appropriate for informal and more formal usage. Quibble in that the book has come apart with fairly light and careful use.

This book was an amazing tool in my study of Spanish. It is not a traditional grammar, but it is still amazingly quick, succint, and too-the-point. It is technical book, in the sense that it doesn't waste time or space with those corny dialogues and phrases that seem to abound in beginner books. Instead, this book fills a critical gap: what you need to know about the structure and syntax of the language in order to go from low-intermediate speaker to advanced fluency. Most intermediate-advanced books resemble "readers", this book is the opposite. There is a wealth of information on false cognates, "registers" (ways of speaking according to the situation), and - my favorite - the right prepositions to use after nouns and verbs, a constant source of errors for non-native speakers who have trouble grasping how "pensar en" means "to think about". This book was just what I needed to move from intermediate foreign Spanish speaker to a fluent speaker. It is especially accessible and meaningful for language learners who - like me - actually find "grammar" to be one of the exciting and valuable parts of language learning.

Having English as my first language I have appreciated the virtues of this book for a number of years. It is well organized with clear explanations and many examples. One of the features I value highly is the classification of words and expressions by their "register", meaning the social context in which the usage occurs. Anything from obscene to formal and legalistic. You will need a year or two of Spanish before the book can be useful.

I found much accurate and appropriate information in this stout tome, which I can heartily recommend to any intermediate or advanced student.

It tells you several ways in Spanish to say "thief", or different kinds of thieves, and many other concepts, like "invention", "disorder", etc.

Despite its usefulness -- comparable to that of its sister volumes on synonyms usage in German, Russian and Spanish --, I find that the labeling of the various synonyms is deficient, since there is no mention of the frequency with which a word is used (some words given are fairly recherche, but not noted as such).

The authors make a welcome and most timely concession to lexical diversity among the various Hispanic lands, by supplying what appears on first impression to be a fairly representative list of Argentine and Mexican terms. The choice is as representative as it can be if one restricts oneself to only 3 countries: the abovesaid two plus Spain. Spain, however, has no register of its own; rather it is conflated with the main register. Thus we see looming before us the the nemesis of Spanish-language lexicography in the 20th -- and hitherto 21st -- century. The rock upon which it constntly stumbles is that it has failed to record adequately the varied, often subtle, often dramatic differences in vocabulary between various countries.

And such a geographical labeling is really necessary, since some of the words listed are of geographically restricted use, and nonetheless appear as if universally valid. It is no longer, as in English-language lexicography, to use a common vocabulary in communion among the 21 Spanish-speaking countries.

It is my intention to rectify this deplorable state of affairs in the immediate future. Until then, trust your instincts.

(By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One" (ISBN: 1591133343))

One of the major difficulties in learning Spanish is the sheer vastness of the vocabulary. There are multiple synonyms; and often a particular synonym can only be used correctly within a limited range of usage. Although students of the language can glean some of these distinctions from reading Spanish-language materials written for native speakers, a more systematic approach is desirable.

The book "Using Spanish Synonyms" fills this vacuum. The entries are organized according to the primary English concept to which they correspond, and the most general Spanish translation. For example, the entry for "footwear" includes the most general word, calzado, as well specialized Spanish terms, such as abarca ("sandal"), ofota ("flip-flop") and zapato ("shoe").

The scope of this book is truly impressive. At more than 700 pages, you could own it for ten years and still not exhaust the information to be found within.

Good book with synonyms in all registers. Excellent guide for those looking to improve their language skills

Was looking for a good unabridged dictionary in electronic format, but few have reviews/details. Am an old DOS dog who'd like to find a working copy of RHUD-DOS, so thought WNW Dict & Thesaurus might offer multiple formats in its "five CDs" ... not so. It is a standard Win 3.x/95/98 compatible reference with several limitations, such as not working well with WordPerfect or Word6. Full installation needs 100MB, and the short-cut does NOT automatically or optionally appear on desktop (either create one, or use Program subdirectory menu). Supplemental and instructional information is very sparse, and no print "manual" or "quick teach" is included ... further the Macmillan Digital website address on box/registration card is wrong (could change again, so will not cite; use browser search to find them). Thankfully, WNW does NOT have voice-over headword pronunciations, like newer dictionaries ... it assumes you can read! I have to use it in multitasking mode, which limits its versatility, but it is otherwise a good standard reference book at a reasonable price.

Since my classes require lots of in class papers I found this book to be quite helpful. It is not very large and heavy and also includes a thesaurus! I am very glade with my choice!

This thesaurus was very good. I liked it a lot and found it to be good. The layout was nice. The cover looked pretty. Overall, the whole book was very good.