Dictionary Reviews

If you are looking for one book that does it all, this is it. Don't confuse this book with "Side-by-Side" just because it has the same author. It is an entirely different beast and everything "Side-by-Side" is not. I use this book as a main textbook with community ed ESL classes and as a supplemental textbook with some workplace ESL classes. My level one students loved this book so much that all the other level one classes at our site gave up their textbooks and switched to this one. It presents the material in appropriate, manageable chunks and it progresses through topics which are extremely appropriate for adults. It's organization is excellent, varying the skills used, and each lesson leaves students feeling like they are learning. This is a good general textbook including conversation, listening, speaking, grammar, TPR, and writing activities. It is a general ESL textbook and not a literacy textbook, however, so for students with low L1 literacy, I supplement this textbook with Molinsky's book "Access" and Linda Mrowicki's book "Pre-reading Resource Book". I have also used Mrowicki's "First Words in English", and "Starting to Read" (Linmore Publishing) as companion texts or as supplemental texts, depending on the class.

One of the best way to learn communicate an English Language. The kids enjoy talk and listen new languages, and learn too!!! Foundations has a lot of exercises with fun and really situations that invite the conversation together. Is the Foundation for new conversation, for new students at English.

I have purchased many language pocket guides, and this one is by far the greatest. The book follows the actual schedule of the traveler. The beginning section of the books concentrates on arrival at the airport, customs, transportation etc. Then the book concentrates on lodging and meals. There are also helpful shoppers guides, social guides(nightclub converstaion), and emergency guides. From asking directions or buying stamps to going for medical treatment, the book covers all aspects of a travelers anxiety. Lastly, the book focus's on the pronunciation of the words as well. Having studied French for a few years, I have come to the conclusion that french words can be very difficult to pronounce for the average non french speaking reader. This book will help you articulate your french almost as well as a native french speaker. It's an essential tool for all levels of communication.

This is the best book for people who are non-native french speakers. It has everything from how to talk to a doctor to how to convert from American clothing sizes to European. We used this book when we travelled around France for two weeks and in every instance, it was useful. For every word/phrase in the book, it even tells you phonetically, how to say it.

Each first-year student at the University of California must fulfill the Subject A Requirement. This requirement has evolved since its inception at UC in 1897-98: now many high school students may fulfill it through College Board Sat-II Writing test scores or Advanced Placement (AP) Examination in English scores. However, if you happen to be one of 16,000 students each year who takes the Subject A Exam on the morning of the second Saturday in May, you will be given a prose passage of some 700-1000 words to read and analyze. Then you will be expected to "write an essay responding on a single topic based on the passage's content. The topic is one of two general kinds: one focusing almost exclusively on the reading passage itself, and the other encouraging students to draw upon their knowledge and personal experience." So what does _French Stories/Contes Français_ have to do with passing this dreaded exam?

That May morning, as I squirmed in my seat in labyrinthine Dwinelle Hall, I settled on this topic: "The Use of Irony in a Short Story." Somehow, I recalled the final story from _French Stories/Contes Français_: "L'Hôte," by Albert Camus (1913-1960). "L'Hôte" (The Guest) is one of six stories from his _L'Exil et le Royaume_ (1957--the same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature). Editor Wallace Fowlie gives this brief synopsis: "The scene of the story is set on a high plateau of Algeria. An Arab has killed a man in a family quarrel, and he is brought to the schoolteacher who is to take him to prison in the next town. The story is constructed around a dramatic irony which forms the conclusion." Without giving anything away, allow me to tell you, if you do not already know, that "l'hôte" has two meanings in French: "host" and "guest." French is that kind of language: nuance and double-entendre abound.

After one year of formal French instruction, _French Stories/Contes Français: A Dual Language Book_ became my constant companion. I loved how I could read these ten short stories in French while I covered up the English translations on facing pages. If I stumbled over an unfamiliar word, I could peek, or I could look it up in the small vocabulary section at the end of the book. Since then, I have re-read this "French Reader" many times.

_Contes_ displays no overarching unity, for it is but a sampling of some of the best short stories from 200 years of French Literature. In chronological order, here is the listing of the stories and their authors: "Micromégas" (Micromegas) by Voltaire (1694-1778), "a philosophical tale written in 1752 . . . obviously imitating Swift's 'Gulliver's Travel's' "; "La Messe de l'Athée" (The Atheist's Mass) by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), illustrates the passion of "one of the most prolific writers in French literature, and one who has created the largest number of characters."

Next is "La Légende de Saint Julien l'Hospitalier" (The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler) by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). This story, one of a volume of three stories (Trois Contes), was written by Flaubert in 1877, twenty years after _Madame Bovary_. "La Légende" differs from this earlier masterpiece because "[i]t is far from being a realistic study of contemporary life . . . .[but rather] it is the attempt to reconstruct medieval customs and characters."

A "dark" favorite of mine, poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) follows with "Le Spleen de Paris (trois poèmes en prose)" (The Spleen of Paris (Three Poems in Prose)), first published posthumously in 1869. These three works, "Le Vieux Saltimbanque" (The Old Clown), "Le Joujou du Pauvre" (The Poor Boy's Toy), "La Corde (A Édouard Manet)" (The Rope (To Edouard Manet)) introduced the new genre, or "literary form," of the prose-poem in France. The editor, Professor Wallace Fowlie of Duke University, stated that these prose-poems were "apologues or fables representing a moral truth."

Other stories are "Meneut" (Minuet) by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893); "Mort de Judas" (Death of Judas) by Paul Claudel (1868-1955); "Le Retour de l'Enfant Prodigue" (The Return of the Prodigal Son) by André Gide (1869-1951); "Grand-Lebrun" (Grand-Lebrun) by François Mauriac (1885-1970); and "Le Passe-Muraille" (The Passer-Through-Walls) by Marcel Aymé (1902-1967). "L'Hôte" ends the collection.

Fowlie's introductions to each story are succinct summations of each author's philosophy and purpose. He offers a few pages of endnotes and a "questionnaire en français" for each text. _French Stories/Contes Français_ is a book to be savored and studied. I recommend it to beginning students of the French language as well as to those who wish to refresh their memory of French literature.

First read this book in 1960 in college, cost 75 cents. Now relearning French and enjoying the stories, reading first the French and using the opposite page English to check my understanding and translate words and phases I don't know. This is an excellent way to enjoy interesting stories and enlarge one's French painlessly. Ordering a new copy as mine is disintegrating with age (as is the reviewer).

My French teacher had this book on her desk one day and I looked through it. We weren't using it as a textbook, nor were we learning very much French, but my teacher said that she would grade the work that I did in The Easy Way. I have been using this book for a few weeks and I have improved a lot. It has great dialogues with vocabulary translations at the bottom of the page, and great grammer explanations and practice. You'll be amazed at how fast you learn. I now know the most French in the class. I recommend, though, that you have somebody on hand who speaks French, just in case you get confused. Most likely, however, you won't be. It's in a very simple format and the explanations are easy to follow. I highly recommend French The Easy Way.

This is a great book for filling in the grammar details while you do one of the tape-based oral courses that teach grammar only by example. The lessons are well formatted, each beginning with a dialog, then moving on to grammar points and lots of exercises, all with answers. The dialogs show enough sense of humor to keep boredom at bay, and the grammar explanations are simple and clear.

I recently purchased this text along with Janson's History of Art (5th ed.). Although this handbook was written with Janson's 6th edition in mind, it has not taken away from my cross-referenced learning experience. Throughout the text, there are references to examples (illustrations) in History of Art (or other popular art history texts) which help in applying the "theory" (if you can call it that) with the "application."

The text has a wide range of art terms key to the study and analysis of art history. The section on Christian subjects, signs and symbols has helped me decipher the icons depicted in Christian-themed pieces of the Renaissance.

My copy of the text is bound somewhat backwards towards the end. The Index and Artist Chronology pages, for example, are divided and unordered ... but it does not take away from the text's usablity!

All in all, I believe this text has been a great investment.

In Abacus to Zeus, you will find a wonderful, concise, approachable 'quick and dirty' reference for those new to studying the visual arts. James Pierce brings together many of the pesky, essential--and formerly, ellusive--details in an accessible reference. Deffinitions with illustrations, terms and stories of mythology, religious art,and a chronology of artists and architects (complete with pronunciation guide--indespensible for those of us who remain unilingual) work well together to make this book a find!

I found this biographical dictionary convenient to use. It provides the reader with a rich cultural overview of the ancient world.
The entries are organized for quick, concise reference.
The well developed chronology was useful.

From Polis To Empire: The Ancient World c. 800 B.C. - A.D. 500 is a dictionary of biographies featuring notable and influential figures of the ancient world. From Alexander the Great to Zoroaster, and including countless lesser-known rulers, mathematicians, historians, and more, From Polis to Empire, deftly edited by Andrew Traver (Assistant Professor of Ancient and Medieval History, Southeastern Louisiana University), not only presents the lives of history's spokespersons but through them, a snapshot of life in the ancient world. An excellent, scholarly reference highly recommended for academic and community library collections, From Polis To Empire is also fascinating for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in antiquity to simply browse through.

I own a 1950 edition of the FUNK AND WAGNALLAS ENCYCLOPEDIA>. Reading in this 29 Volume edition is like traveling-not only to different countries, but also in to a different time. Very informative and pleasant to read. Brought me hours of entertainment and learning.

I have had my Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia set for almost 8 years and I can say with out a doubt it is one of the best Encyclopedias I have ever run used, bar none!
In depth articles and thousands of pictures maps and charts really set this set apart.

I do not know if it is in print anylonger but I do know that Microsoft's Encarta was taken word for word from this outstanding set.

I like it better than Britannica!

This is the best dictionary I used in graduate school when working on a Ph.D. in Italian literature, and is the one I recommend to my students. The only drawback for English speakers is lack of assistance with pronunciation (in particular, which syllable receives the accent), but this is more than made up for by the excellent definitions and usage guides.

This dictionary is amoung the best I have ever seen. It always has the word I am looking for and is very clear as to what the meaning of the word is, the part of speech, and the gender. It is also very portable and travelable, being a paperback. It is worth the cash to own this book. Avete bisogno di questo dizionario!

Mr. Davis' book is an inspiring yet very personal account of the men charged with fighting one of history's bloodiest wars. Filled with interesting facts and accounts of the generals' lives, this book is the closest thing we have (and may ever have) to really knowing these great men.

This is the only book of it's kind - all the generals of WW1 - there is a picture and short bio of each. Henry Davis has written a book that has filled a niche for any one with an interest in American Military history!

When I married a German man, my mother gave me this book as a wedding gift. This book was an excellent start on my journey to learning the language. I recommend it for any child or adult who is a beginner to beginner/intermediate in German. By using each word in a funny but grammatically useful sentence, reusing the same words throughout the book, and associating each with a picture that makes it fun and serves as a memory cue, I came out the other side of studying this book with the ability to understand most basic spoken German and to speak a bit myself. And I had fun reading it. Not many dictionaries can claim that.

Its only drawback is that, as with any language book not accompanied by a tape, there's not much help with pronunciation. (My husband read the entire thing out for me onto an audiotape.)

Along with the words are cute cartoons which help the child to visualize the words they are learning. Also there are phrases that uses the words, which helps them to learn sentence structure. The phrases are ones you can use in everyday conversation which is something most books don't provide.