Dictionary Reviews

As a member of the audience at many of the 'gigs' compiled here, I know first-hand of their accuracy,(a rarity in the field)......................... A question to anyone out there who may know: This book was updated every two years for ten years, ending with this edition; might there be any plans to note the many changes in these bios over the past twelve years?................ Even considering the age of this edition, there is nothing that comes close to its accuracy and completeness.

Sheldon Harris" Who's Who in Blues is a remarkable feat of diligent research. Too often what is marketed as an encyclopedia fails to deliver, and experts can list almost as many people who have been left out of its pages as those who made it in as entries. Not only will you be likely to find an entry for your favorite but obscure bluesman or blueswoman, you will likely be pleased at the amount of information provided. And there is not musical prejudice or snobbery here; the traditional bluesmen share space with the Blues Queens of vaudeville and the latecomers who put the soul in Rhythm & Blues. The amount of information provided varies with each performer. The more obscure blues performers left little record, but what could be found is doubtless within the covers of the Who's Who in Blues. Legends like Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, etc. have their careers detailed year by year with places and dates played that you are unlikely to find anywhere else. Also included are snippets of critical comments, songs with which the performers were identified, and citations of other performers who were influences to them. - Frank Cullen Artistic Director American Vaudeville Museum, Inc.

This book has some absolutely beautiful names in it. They are all set into their own category, has the scripture about the person whom the name is derived (if applicable), a meaning, and a bible verse to go with it. the catagories include: Old testament names, New testament names, Place names, Precious Stone names, Nature names, Other bible names, Names from Christian history, Virtue names, Contemporary Christian Leaders, and Popular names

This book is wonderful for anyone wanting to give their baby a name with spiritual meaning.

This book is a collection of every remotely normal name in the Bible with its meaning. It also has names of important Christian figures and a list of non-biblical popular names with appropriate scripture refernces. It's interesting for finding out more about a name and is easy to skim through for inspiration for a name with meaning for your baby.

I'm not a lawyer but I play one on television. If I was going to throw the book at someone, this is the book I would want to throw. I mean, it's a really BIG dictionary! Lots of words, but, unfortunately, no pictures. I especially like the definition of "wharfinger," also "Herkemer."

I am a member of the New York and Brazilian bars and have practiced law bridging the two jurisdictions for almost 30 years. In my practice, I have found Bouvier's Law Dictionary to be the only English-language law dictionary that cites and explains civil law concepts and institutions for the common-law lawyer. It is also the most useful English-language dictionary for the civil law lawyer trying to understand common law concepts, such as fiducuary duty, bailment, equity and the like.

Anne Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary would be my first choice, along with Chambers, to take on my desert island. It is a most dependable source of inspiration for the crossword solver.

For the past forty years Anne Bradford has been scrutinising every puzzle that she has encountered. She has broken down the clues into definitions and cryptic definitions and has carefully recorded and stored all the words, including those that indicate anagrams, reversals and puns. It is for this reason that this volume is so valuable in decoding the cryptic clue.

Even the most obscure word can be found under its every day definition. If you are searching your memory for a word meaning fidget, for example, just look it up and she gives you: fantad, fanteeg, fantigue, fantod, fike, fuss, fyke, jimjams, jittery, niggle, trifle, twaddle, twitch and uneasy. Word-length, crossing letters and subsidiary indications do the rest. If you are looking for a fish she gives you two pages of them!

I have found that this book makes solving the most difficult puzzle (including those of Ximenes and Azed) an easy task. It is undoubtedly the best of the solving aids available and I have no hesitation in recommending it to débutante solvers. The experts already have it on their bookshelves!

Anne Bradford has used her 40 years of crossword solving and setting to produce an essential aid for the crossword fan. She has examined every cryptic clue that she has tackled over these years and has compiled a dictionary that includes even the most obscure references. I find that this book can half my solving time and, when creating puzzles, it is a magnificent thesaurus. I can certainly say that this is the best crossword dictionary available.

I especially liked the interactive CD. It was very helpful to hear, speak and see the words at the same time. I also thought the narration was very clear and easy to understand. I would recommend these package for anyone trying to learn the language on their own.

But YOU have to do the work. They will not do it for you. I recommend these tapes.

I have owned this book for about five years, and just finished reading it for about the fifth time. It seems to keep jumping off that bookshelf and landing right in my lap!

Four years ago, when I was preparing for level two of the Japanese Proficiency Exam, I summoned this thin volume to assist me in building my vocabulary. It proved instrumental in helping me pass that exam.

Just 63 prefixes and suffixes in 127 pages...Doesn't sound like a lot. But in just a short amount of time with this book, a student can increase their Japanese vocabulary by a couple thousand words. The example sentences provided within are both meaningful and interesting. Perhaps the best thing about this book is that, through teaching prefixes and suffixes, it prepares students to recognize and then comprehend the meaning of new kanji compounds which they encounter in their readings.

I highly recommend this book. It definitely provides a lot of bang for the buck.

I like this book for the prefixes and suffixes it introduces. After reading the book, I can recognize them more easily when they come up in something I'm reading. But I also learned a lot from what the author calls the "bases," that is, the basic words that the prefixes and suffixes are attached to. Many of these words I didn't know. What I think is most valuable, though, is that you can now spot the prefixes and suffixes when you hear them in conversation. It's not just a matter of seeing them, but hearing them too.

This book has the perfect mix of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversation. Okell is a superb teacher, and has chosen good, native speakers for his tapes. The progression of information is very logical and helpful. He also includes an Appendix to allow you to quickly get some useful prhases under your belt, as you methodically learn the carefully chosen vocabulary in the Lessons. The review sections are thoughtfully designed to quickly get you back up to speed after a break (as opposed to having to work through lessons again).

The pronunciation section (book & tape) portion is the best I have seen in an introductory text. For example, having wroked through introductory texts in Greek, Thai, and Vietnamese, his explanation of the differences in aspirate, plain, and voiced consonants is the most clear.

As you consider purchasing this text (a wise decision), you really ought to consider simultaneously purchaseing Okell's Burmese: An Introduction to the Script. For anyone wanting to learn more than cursory Burmese, the sooner you learn the script the better. The Roman-alphabet transliteration is far from standardized in Burmese (as opposed to the Vietnamese standardization a century ago) and can get confusing.

Final note: although amazon.com asks that I not display postal addresses or URLs, at the time of this writing, amazon.com was out of most of these books, while the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois Univ (the publisher) was fully stocked. Just an FYI.

I have purchased many self-teaching language courses and this is by far the best. Starts off simple and builds knowledge and confidence gradually. The variations in exercises also keeps the student interested throughout the book. The tapes are very much like an actual lecture. Okell includes many fascinating points about Burmese culture and the added bonuses at the end of the tapes such as BBC Burmese broadcasts and traditional Burmese music are really interesting to hear. What every language package should be.

This book is a very concise well organized resource for advanced, fluent and native speakers who wish to improve their business Spanish speaking skills. The book provides ample business vocabulary, phrases and brief grammatical explanations as a reminder of how certain rules function in Spanish (one would already have to have a solid understanding of the grammar).All chapters have practice exercises for immediate application and an answer key is provided at the back of the book. The book is comprised of business scenarios and what I found particularly helpful was that they are realistic and the phrases applied are currently used by all Spanish speaking countries thus eliminating language barriers within the Spanish language. This book will definitely enable you to improve your business Spanish vocabulary and enable you to speak confidently in a professional environment. It's also key to note that it provides basic vocabulary and phrases in the business scenarios however, if you are looking for more extensive vocabulary another reference should be consulted. I recommend this reference for those who need to speak with the correct terminology from time to time in an appropriate business situation in Spanish.

I used these books for my second year of spanish in a Masters degree in international marketing. The first year we did basic spanish and in this year we wanted the language we would need for business purposes. The texts are relevant and contextual, they cover both castillian and south american spanish issues. The tapes cover spanish from both sides of the atlantic which is useful. Furthermore the texts expose you to socio-political issues in the hispanic nations which gives a good basis to conversational spanish when current affairs topics crop up. Knowing the name of the spanish parliament or the title of government ministers etc is very good exposure. Thumbs up from me (I got a good mark in this course so I can't complain).

This comic book treatment of the first part of Caesar's Gallic War is a real treat for the beginning and intermediate Latin student who may want a break from the usual textbooks. The artwork is colorful and aids in understanding what the characters are saying on the page. The Latin is in short bits and is not too complex (or too simple). There are also a number of humorous touches in the details of some of the drawings which I only noticed after a couple of readings.

This book has turned out to be a surprisingly useful tool in my own beginning Latin studies.

For those who grew up savoring the Classics Illustrated version of Caesar's Gallic Wars, this book is a leap to the next level: a lavishly and accurately drawn comic book style history(vaguely--but only--reminiscent of the best details of the Asterix series comix--). This fascinating book allows the characters to 'speak' Caesar's Latin and the reader to make the translations, which come surprisingly easy, even to the moderatley proficient. To those who know the Gallic Wars, it would certainly add a further diminsion, and for those just discovering Caesar, it would provide helpful illustrations of the peoples and the military arts of both Gallic and Roman camps. If there is any drawback, it is in the fact that only Book I, Bellum Helveticum, is covered. Succeeding Books II-VII are extracted and included in the appendix, but having had the appetite whetted for dymanic illustrated story-telling, one can only hope that the remainding chapters be given the same fine treatment.