Language Arts Books

I picked up the book out of curiosity and could not put it down. It gives an engrossing history of the Chinese people by way of a study of the languages of the area. It is not just a linguistic text however; it is about all aspects of life in China: politics, economics, poetry,history, everything. Language is just what ties it all together, much like the language ties the country together.

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is completely engrossing. Rarely cam that be said of a reference type work like this! The author did an excellent job of making things understandable for someone like me who does not know any Chinese. He gives a very clear overview of the different dialects, including discussion of what exactly characterizes these dialects. It is also a great into to the other language families of China (Mongolian, Tungusic, Tai, etc.), information which is not easy to come by. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested Chinese, China, minority languages, and language classification in general.

This book is completely engrossing. I knew next to nothing about the history of my native language and it's place among the "dialects" of Chinese. Nor was I really aware of the roles played by geography, politics, and cultural influences in shaping a language or even in a language's classification. The writing is concise and lucid; and much of it is accessible to laymen. I think for the information contained within and for the price, it deserves a 10. (FYI, the colors on one of the maps seem to be offset in my book. Maybe it's intentional?)

S. Robert Ramsey's THE LANGUAGES OF CHINA is a survey originally published by Princeton University Press in 1987. China is an immense country with a rich linguistic heritage, and it is a challenge to cover even the basics adequately in a mere 340 pages. Ramsey does an admirable job, and this student of historical linguistics was thrilled to see such attention paid to the diachrony of many languages mentioned within.

The "Chinese language", the set of mutually unintelligible dialects belonging to Han people and descended from a relatively recent common ancestor, is by far the most widely-spoken in China, and Ramsey dedicates the first half of the book to it. He begins with a presentation of the historical debate over Han linguistic unification, with the northern dialects winning out over southern dialects like those of Shanghai and Guangdong. Since Mandarin has, for better or worse, been taken as the standard, it is the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Mandarin that Ramsey describes as representative of the entire language. Ramsey clearly wrote for a non-specialist audience, as he tries to debunk older Western myths that Chinese is somehow a "primitive" language due to its lack of inflection. The grammar of Mandarin here is splendidly full for just a few pages, though the debate over the use of the particle "le" isn't mentioned.

Ramsey's coverage of Chinese isn't, however, purely synchronic, for he also devotes space to the earlier stages of the language. He begins with an explanation of the Qieyun rhyming dictionary, the document compiled by Lu Fayan that, in spite of its faults, is our only useful source for the pronunciation of Middle Chinese. Ramsey then gives a colourful presentation of the life and work of Berhard Karlgren, the Swedish scholar who, by applying the comparative method to modern Chinese dialects, worked towards a phonetic reality for the mere algebraic relationships of the Qieyun dictionary. But this is not mere blind adulation, Ramsey does acknowledge Karlgren's faults and lists the younger scholars who followed him and improved on his theories. Ramsey also briefly mentions Old Chinese, the reconstruction of which is quite uncertain, and talks about some of the important changes from Middle Chinese to modern Mandarin.

The second half of the book deals with the many non-Han languages of China. First is the "Altaic family" spoken in the north of China, the Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages that may or may not be a valid genetic grouping, but which have significant typological similarities. Here again Ramsey gives abundant space to diachronic issues, showing how various modern languages each differ from their common ancestor. Writing systems, too, are covered. The languages of the south come next, including the Tai, Tibeto-Burman, Miao-Yao, and Mon-Khmer families, as well as unclassified or isolated languages. The story of how these languages have fared under Han domination is a major theme of the book.

If you have little bit of Mandarin under your belt (and you don't need a lot) and are interested in the linguistic diversity of this part of the world, THE LANGUAGES OF CHINESE is worth seeking out. This is especially true for historical linguistics curious about China. I can only wonder why it hasn't been reissued.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I examines the Chinese language and the Chinese dialects while Part II surveys the other languages spoken and written in China.

The book offers fascinating historical, grammatical, and political, insights; for example about possible reasons why the north is more unified than the south (easily traversed northern plains vs. isolating southern valleys and mountains).

Westerners often say that Chinese is a language without grammar simply because it's uninflected. This is grossly wrong and Ramsey describes the rudiments of Chinese's positional grammar and how the grammatical rules change somewhat from dialect to dialect. He also gives many examples of morphemes and words and how different dialects put them together.

As for political insight, I am no fan of China's repressive government and its policies. But when it comes to the cultural and linguistic minorities, its policies are surprisingly tolerant and have been for centuries. When we think that as recently as the 1950s, the French government was still trying to suppress the Gaelic language of Bretagne (Breton) we must wonder if there isn't something we can learn from Chinese policies. After all China has for centuries been making room for its minorities, and when Mandarin (putonghua) was created and adopted as the national common speech, much was made that it was no one's native tongue.

I personally wasn't very interested in the other languages of China, but they get the same, though shorter, descriptive treatment of their history and grammar. On the other hand, one real failure of the book is that all the examples are romanized (pinyin) but almost always without the corresponding Chinese characters. This is a pity since with them the book would have certainly been more useful as a study aid. I suppose in 1987 it was much harder (and expensive) to typeset Chinese passages in English books.

All in all, a fascinating survey of the linguistic landscape of China.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

The double entendre in the title of my review is intentional. Chomsky's letters not only sketch how the USA government manufactured domestic consent for its foreign policies during the early 1990s, it also (perhaps intentionally?) adumbrates by demonstration the salient aspects of the "propaganda model" Chomsky and Edward Herman explored in considerable depth in their work *Manufacturing Consent*.

As for the content of the work, I recommend that readers consult the excellent reviews by Chris Green (always, always read his reviews), Egalitarian, and "Reader" (10.10.99) on this page. I couldn't possibly improve on them.

One last observation: Chomsky resides in Lexington, but I can't help but wonder if the title selection plays on the historical significance Lexington has as the location for the beginning of the American Revolution. Perhaps I am poeticizing the title. Nevertheless, I am quite certain that this work will make the canon of literary political dissent as so many of Chomsky's works have already done.

Chomsky writes that the Sandinistas won an election in November 1984 widely perceived as free and fair but U.S. elites put this down the memory hole. Michael Kinsley noted the "Orwellian" rhetoric of the Reaganites in blaming the Sandinistas for Nicargua's ruined economy, after it had been the official policy of the U.S. backed contras to destroy it. But he praised Nicaragua's 1990 elections as free and fair. Anthony Lewis praised the elections too but criticized the Central American policies of the administration--which included the economic embargo on Nicaragua supported by liberals like him. Chomsky quotes the UNO economist Fransisco Mayorga as estimating that the embargo cost Nicaragua 3 billion.

The implications suggesting that the U.S. is a terrorist state in that it was telling the Nicaraguan people that Contra terror and the embargo would continue unless they voted out the Sandinistas in Feb. 1990, was not noticed in the U.S. media. Indeed Time magazine celebrated the attacks on Nicaraguan civilian infrastructure i.e. U.S./contra war crimes as causing the Sandinistas to be voted out. The killing of the poor by the U.S. backed security forces in El Salvador and Guatemala, which ran elections under extreme terror, received little sustained attention.

Chomsky observes that Laurence Pezullo, while the last U.S. ambassador to Somoza, had advised the National Guard to continue its final mass murder operations which were killing tens of thousands. After Carter couldn't prevent the Sandinistas from taking power, the National Guard, the future Contras, were flown out in U.S. military planes with Red Cross markings (a war crime). The media had nothing to say about the U.S. successfully pressuring the new UNO government in Nicaragua after 1990 to drop its demand that the U.S. comply with the World Court ruling of 1986 that the U.S. stop terrorizing Nicaragua and pay 17 billion dollars in reparations. After the U.S. withheld desperately needed aid, the Chamarro government dropped its demand for U.S. compliance

The media suppressed that evidence of Libyan involvement in the murder of one American that led to the "retaliation" against Libya in 1986 which killed many dozens of civilians, was non-existent according to the West Germans. . Chomsky writes that likewise evidence for Libyan involvement in the Lockerbie bombing is negligible (and years later this is still the truth, see--William .Blum's new book "Freeing the World to Death). In any case, Lockerbie may have been "retaliation" for the U.S. shooting down an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988, killing 290. The commander of a nearby vessel, David Carlson later wrote that the Iranian plane was clearly civilian.and not acting otherwise.. The shoot down, by the U.S.S. Vincennes, Carlson suggested,was designed to test the ship's Aegis missile system. This atrocity was the culmination of U.S. support for Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war; for a few days later Iran capitulated to a cease fire on Iraq's terms. When the commander of the Vincenes came home, he was awarded medals by George Bush Sr. In another case of the U.S. and blowing up planes, Chomsky writes that George Schultz later admitted "in a backhand way" that the terrorists who blew up the Air India Flight over Ireland in 1985 killing 329, originated in a mercenary training camp for Central America in Alabama. It was a sting operation that went haywire.

The U.S. funded Noriega's candidate in 1984 elections in Panama that Noriega stole with great violence, a period when he was knee-deep in the drug trade.. George Schultz went down to the inauguration of the candidate, Barletta. The U.S. later soured on Noriega of course, for reasons having nothing to with his bad qualities. As the U.S. invaded Panama to install more reliable drug tycoons in the name of freedom, the Bush senior administration was resuming high tech sales to China and lifted a ban on loans to Saddam's Iraq. After the U.S. suppressed peaceful settlements of the first Gulf war and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, Thomas Friedman and Alan Cowell explained that after the first Gulf War the U.S. undermined the anti-Saddam rebellion.. They hoped Saddam would remain in place until a more pliable clone of the dictator could overthrow him and restore Iraq to the "iron-fisted" rule that the U.S. had so admired before August 1990.. Ahmad Chalabi complained in the British press about the U.S. supporting Saddam's butchery of the rebels. Chomsky notes that the late Senator Moynihan was heard a great deal during this period about his devotion to the UN charter/international law. Of course, Moynihan had bragged in his 1978 memoir about blocking UN efforts to stop Indonesia's aggression against East Timor in 1975 while U.S. ambassador to the UN. He admitted that the invasion, supported by the U.S. until 1999, had killed 60,000 people by early 1976... The media did not juxtapose proclamations of U.S. opposition to aggressive dictators with U.S. support for aggression in East Timor, Morocco in Western Sahara(also helped along by Moynihan at the UN), Turkey in Cyprus, Turkey's ethnic cleansing of its Kurds, South Africa in Namibia and Angola, etc.

Chomsky analyzes a review by Caleb Carr about a book about America's mid 19th century Indian wars and notes its similarity to a hypothetical apologetic for Nazi expansionism. He exposes some embarrassing contradictions and fallacies in the venerable A. Schlesinger's claim that JFK intended to withdraw from Vietnam without victory.

This short book is lucidly written and full of Chomsky's subtle humor. It is Chomsky at his best and most accessible.

"Letters from Lexington : Reflections on Propaganda" is a compelling collection of letters which reveal the role of the US major media in justifying and championing US government and corporate actions throughout the world. One chapter which illuminates Chomsky's dissident analysis is the chapter entitled, "The PC Thought Police". In this chapter, Chomsky compares the US propaganda system to that of Brezhnev's USSR:

"In the study of any system, it is often useful to look at something radically different, to highlight crucial features. Let's begin, then, by looking at a society that is close to the opposite pole from ours: Brezhnev's USSR.

Consider policy formation. In Brezhnev's USSR, economic policy was determined in secret, by centralized power; popular involvement was nil, except marginally, through the Communist Party. Political policy was in the same hands. The political system was meaningless, with virtually no flow from bottom to top.

Consider next the information system, inevitably constrained by the distribution of economic-political power. In Brezhnev's USSR there was a spectrum, bounded by disagreements within centralized power. True, the media were never obedient enough for the commissars. Thus they were bitterly condemned for undermining public morale during the war in Afghanistan, playing into the hands of the imperial aggressors and their local agents from whom the USSR was courageously defending the people of Afghanistan. For the totalitarian mind, no degree of servility is ever enough.

There were dissidents and alternative media: underground samizdat and foreign radio. According to a 1979 US government-funded study, 77% of blue-collar workers and 96% of the middle elite listened to foreign broadcasts, while the alternative press reached 45% of high-level professionals, 41% of political leaders, 27% of managers, and 14% of blue-collar workers. The study also found most people satisfied with living conditions, favoring state-provided medical care, and largely supportive of state control of heavy industry; emigration was more for personal than political reasons.

Dissidents were bitterly condemned as "anti-Soviet" and "supporters of capitalist imperialism," as demonstrated by the fact that they condemned the evils of the Soviet system instead of marching in parades denouncing the crimes of official enemies. They were also punished, not in the style of US dependencies such as El Salvador, but harshly enough.

The concept "anti-Soviet" is particularly striking. We find similar concepts in Nazi Germany, Brazil under the generals, and totalitarian cultures generally. In a relatively free society, the concept would simply evoke ridicule. Imagine, say, that Italian critics of state power were condemned for "anti-Italianism." Such concepts as "anti-Soviet" are the very hallmark of a totalitarian culture; only the most dedicated and humorless commissar could use such terms.

Well-behaved party hacks were guilty of no such crimes as anti-Sovietism. Their task was to applaud the state and its leaders; or even better, criticize them for deviating from their grand principles, thus instilling the propaganda line by presupposition rather than assertion, always the most effective technique.

With these observations as background, let us turn to our own free society.

Begin again with policy formation. Economic policy is determined in secret; in law and in principle, popular involvement is nil. The Fortune 500 are more diverse than the Politburo, and market mechanisms provide far more diversity than in a command economy. But a corporation, factory, or business is the economic equivalent of fascism: decisions and control are strictly top-down. People are not compelled to purchase the products or rent themselves to survive, but those are the sole choices.

The political system is closely linked to economic power, both through personnel and broader constraints on policy. Efforts of the public to enter the political arena must be barred: liberal elites see such efforts as a dangerous "crisis of democracy," and they are intolerable to statist reactionaries ("conservatives"). The political system has virtually no flow from bottom to top, apart from the local level; the general public appears to regard it as largely meaningless.

The media present a spectrum of opinion, largely reflecting tactical divisions within the state-corporate nexus. True, they are never obedient enough for the commissars. The media were bitterly condemned for undermining public morale during the war in Vietnam, playing into the hands of the imperial aggressors and their local agents from whom the US was courageously defending the people of Vietnam; a Freedom House study provides a dramatic example. For the totalitarian mind, again, no degree of servility is enough.

There are dissidents and other information sources. Foreign radio broadcasts reach virtually no one, but alternative media exist, though without a tiny fraction of the outreach of samizdat. Dissidents are bitterly condemned as "anti-American" and "supporters of Communism" as demonstrated by the fact that they condemn the evils of the American system instead of marching in parades denouncing the crimes of official enemies. But they are not severely punished, at least if they are privileged and of the right color. Again, the concept "anti-American" is particularly striking, the very hallmark of a totalitarian mentality."

Just one example of Chomsky's brilliant analysis contained in this seminal study of how the major US media works together with the US government and its corporate interests to undermine democracy. A must read for any student of journalism.

Chomsky is the American Empire's worst enemy. Like anyone who challenges powerful interests and their claims to authority, he has been the target of an unrelenting, but increasingly ineffectual (sometimes comical), smear campaign. Noam Chomsky is a national treasure and a credit to the human species. Read Chomsky's "Letters", or anything else by one of the world's leading advocates for democracy and freedom.

In the following review, I will discuss what this book contains, who it is good for, and its pluses and minuses. I hope it helps! "Lingua Latina" was a Godsend for me!

Neumann's "companion" book to the first volume of Orberg's "Lingua Latina" series (a total immersion Latin method) is a very helpful edition-for some people, namely the self-teaching (or for a teacher struggling to teach Orberg without much of a grounding in Latin). The fact is that it is really a substitute for a teacher. For this reason, the title is misleading, it ought to be "the autodidact's companion". However, if one does buy it (which I encourage the autodidact to do), it can replace the two books written by Orberg, "Latine Disco" and "Grammatica Latina." However, it would be best to study "Latine Disco as best as one can since the presentation preserves and strengthens the immersion method.

The whole point of "Lingua Latina" is that the student learns Latin from the inside as it were. Neumann's book functions as a sort of bridge for the autodidact, and as such it is in English. This fact alone impinges on the immersion method Orberg worked so hard to make. As such it is not an ideal book, and this and the fact that it's title is little misleading are the only reasons I gave it 4 stars instead of five. Ideally, one would have a teacher who asks questions in Latin, lectures in Latin, and demands answers in Latin, hence prodding the student to really live the language and internalise it.

However, we don't live in an ideal world, and even if one does find a teacher who uses the Orberg texts, he may not be a sufficiently trained teacher for the student to really know the material without a remedial text, such as is to be found in Neumann's book. It is extremely straightforward and crystal clear in its explanations.

So what exactly is in Neumann's book? It is a chapter-by-chapter grammar guide to the "Familia Roma" book, and it includes the vocabulary for each chapter presented in a more systematic fashion than is found in the main text and examples are given for each grammatical point as well as the occasional explication on some historic oddity. A morphology table is included at the end as is a vocabulary by chapter index and a Latin English dictionary.

I must emphasize, however, that the "Exercitia" are a vital part of the method and must be purchased and worked through to really get a grasp of Latin. The answer key is readily available and includes the answers for the main texts chapter homeworks, which is an added bonus for auto-didacts. For the self-learner or home-schooling parent, the following books should be used: "Familia Romana" (the main text", "Lingua Latina: A College Companion", and the "Exercitia." The CD is well worth buying as well because it features Orberg reading the text (and his reading is not dry or wooden) and it has an interactive version of the in-book homeworks. Be patient and don't study too much at once. Good luck!

THANK YOU. I received this a month ago and I am thrilled. I am self teaching, and this resource is making it so much easier for me to understand and move through the material with confidence I am learning and understanding what I should, chapter by chapter.

Many adult self learners and homeschool families have struggled with or passed on Lingua Latina because they do not have access to Latin teachers and/or have no Latin experience, as such, the 100% direct approach has been less attractive than traditional guided approaches. This guide provides the Latin experience of a teacher guiding you through the course. All the grammar that you are to learn in each chapter is explained, and the new vocabulary is defined chapter by chapter so you don't have to look it up in a tiny print glossary that was my only resource before. The Companion is in English - while I applaud the idea that one can learn Latin by total immersion, as a self-learner, I am much more comfortable having the grammatical explanations in English!

The sample pages at Focus Publishing provide a good feel for the how the entire book flows, it is well designed and easy to use. I never felt sure I was getting everything out of each chapter that I should until I went back and read through the related Companion chapters. It's caused me to review old material, but I am much more comfortable now with what I am learning.

Having failed miserably trying to self-teach with Wheelock's, I found Lingua Latina to be much more intuitive, enjoyable and doable, but I struggled to understand the grammatical structure, and the Latin-only support materials made it an uphill climb to construct this myself. The Companion has made this information much more accessible and ensures that this direct method course is an effective way to learn Latin for me.

Julie Brennan
San Diego, CA

I have found Jeannne Neumann's book fantastic and indispensable in my own study of Latin and, of course, with use of Hans Oerberg's Lingua Latina. As a self-learner, homeschool mom and teacher to homeschool students, this book has given me excellent insight into the Latin language; perspectives I wouldn't have discovered on my own, and background/historical information that answers questions that have been lingering in my mind for eons! I believe a person could benefit from this and LL even if using another curriculum (perhaps hitting a trouble spot) ~ the explanations and readings are so thorough and helpful.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

Once a person understands the basic quirks, the grammar, of Latin, all he or she needs is Hans Orberg. Once they acquire Orberg's treasure, they need Jeanne Neumann.

College Companion is a cool drink in the desert of Latin material out there, somewhere, ostensibly--and it is well worth the money. 25 bucks and you have in your hands a book that takes you by the hand and walks you through the maze of Latin.

Did I say maze? Not anymore. If it were hardcover, this book would fetch northward of a hundred bucks easily.

Are you going to learn Latin by declining and conjugating till you're blue in the face? Go at it if you must, but there is a better way.

The better way is here.

Don't let the title fool you: Jeanne Neumann's guide to Hans Oerberg's Lingua Latina: Familia Romana isn't just for college students. I'm a homeschool parent and tutor, and the College Companion has cut my lesson prep time in half. The book brings together materials that were previously scattered among several small booklets, but the resulting whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Neumann's detailed and clear grammatical explanations make her book an indispensable guide to the Oerberg course for homeschoolers, independent learners, and teachers alike.

Listen to Me gets at the very heart and soul of why we write. Lauber talks about writing at its purest-writing for oneself, writing to find oneself. She likens writing to bearing witness, not only to a time and event, but to our life. Her chapters offer a variety of examples, and each ends with useable suggestions and prompts to start and guide the writing process. Her suggestion to rewrite from a different person or point of view to become "unstuck" had me digging out old writing notebooks. Lauber's advice is just as useful to the seasoned writer as to the beginner. It is refreshing to read a book on writing which only briefly discusses publication-Lauber's point is that writing is an admirable enough goal. The automatic writing prompts are much more practical than in many other books on writing. Reading Lauber's work left me feeling motivated and hopeful rather than discouraged.

This is a beautiful and personal book on wriing. It's like having a mentor alongside you as you stumble and search for a voice. Terrific book. Personal, moving, and really useful. Highly recommended.

As a teacher of Creative Writing here in Annapolis, I've tried many textbooks. Most recently I've tried Stephen King's book on writing--but while it's a fascinating account of his automobile accident, it's not particularly useful for day to day teaching in a classroom. Lynn Lauber's book LISTEN TO ME is a remarkable work: short enough that students don't find it overwhelming. Each chapter is also followed by specific lessons. These are immensely valuable, and my students actually look foward to doing them. I highly recommend this title.

At last here's a writing book that is real and passionate and written by someone who has actually written and published beautiful and memorable fiction. Lynn has taken the lectures from her UCLA writing class and expanded them into this wonderful book. I've read many books by and about writing, but this one rings with truth--the practical truth of real writer revealing the secrets of her craft. If you know anyone who is aspiring to write, this is the one book to buy.

This small, but effective writing aid reaffirms the act of writing, an effort to define the true self. The art of storytelling is a form of self-expression, capturing the ebb and flow of events as they run through our lives, forming our parameters. Families have always used storytelling to inform, one generation to another, spooling out tales of youth, hardship, lessons learned, triumphant accomplishments. How many of us have sat near grandparents, listening with rapt attention as they tell of the long ago days of their youth? The author regularly conducts workshops that teach the process of storytelling, using the stories as a way to learn the skills of self-expression. Immediately accessible and readable, Lauber points out that even the most ordinary life is rich with opportunity.

The author takes storytelling a step further, emphasizing the importance of the written word in our examination of self. This is writing purely for one's own pleasure, not for publication, but for personal clarity. Lauber stresses that it is not necessary to "be" a writer to write successfully. We achieve a deeper perception of the true self as we cover blank pages with random thoughts, ideas, memories and dreams. Naturally healing, these writings address the feelings and experiences of a lifetime. "Self-writing", as such, is a sorting process, illuminating the past. Hopefully, the process will become a habit along the way. Such techniques enable our connections with others and make it possible to form relationships that nurture and expand our potential.

Lauber guides us through the necessary steps, providing anecdotes to illustrate her point, demythologizing the most common misconception: I don't have anything to say. The author posits that the opposite, in fact, is true. She suggests that we start with "my mother told me" and go on from there. In this way, fledgling writers are able to relinquish personal constraints and give themselves permission to witness the journey.

The chapters range from "writing out your life", "writing for revenge" and" writing to heal", to "finding your form" and "editing". In addition, at the end of each chapter, there are valuable writing exercises, specially formulated for honing observation and narrative skills. The final chapter is titled "Nine Good Things about Writing", practical suggestions for conquering the most common difficulties. All this information packed into one small volume is quite a feat and one that Lauber does with ease.

This book is a treasure, full of enthusiasm, a challenge to explore our inner selves and our stories. Lauber's joy as a teacher is contagious, as she encourages the reader, pen in hand, to write the words that free, comfort and acknowledge. Listen to Me is the perfect gift, but buy more than one copy and keep one for yourself. I did. Luan Gaines/2003.

This book is useful for anyone whose trying to have a voice in government and doesn't have their own lobbyist. I recommend it especially for nonprofits because of everything recommended in this book doesn't require a lot of money. It takes creativity, collaboration, knowing who to lobby and a bit of guts to walk up to the legislators and talk to them. Abbott-Hoduski shows with many examples, including from her own work, of how to navigate the system and creatively amass support.

Bernadine E. Abbott-Hoduski is the founder of the American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table. In Lobbying For Libraries And The Public's Access To Government Information: An Insider's View, Bernadine narrates the inherently fascinating story of her twenty-one year crusade to get funding for libraries and to establish systems that would substantially improve how information is distributed to the American public. Drawing upon Bernadine's impressive personal experience and considerable expertise, Lobbying For Libraries And The Public's Access To Government Information offers a wealth of valuable tips, practical techniques for effective lobbying as an individual or as a group, along with advice for influencing the legislative process, as well as common mistakes to avoid when seeking to change the way things are done. A superb accounting and a solidly useful read Lobbying For Libraries And The Public's Access To Government Information is most especially recommended for government document librarians, lobbyists, and policy makers.

Senator Paul Simon's forward to this important guide for effective lobbying says it all. "If you are interested in a book that spells out the ways that you can help libraries, and in the process, help our society, you've come to the right place." (p. iv)

Supporters of libraries of all types and sizes greatly need the practical wisdom of this gentle but hard hitting memoir-manual from an unadulterated radical librarian. Chapter 3, "How to Lobby" and Chapter 5, "Who Is to Be Lobbied?" Should be required reading for every library board member and library administrator.

This "inside the beltway" true view of how US Government Information law and policy got done and undone during the 1970 - 1990 decades is a scary yet optimistic read. The book does not answer the question, "Who is fighting the good fight for access to government information now?" But this book reminded this reader that, "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."

The U.S. Army Infantry Officers School in December 1970 didn't leave me much time to listen closely to peace rioters like Abbie Hoffman. Hoffman was in the Cook County Jail, penning the introduction to "Steal This Book." Then and there he wrote, Repressive tolerance is a real phenomenon. To talk of true freedom of the press, we must talk of the availability of the channels of communication that are designed to reach the entire population, or at least that segment of the population that might participate in such a dialogue. Freedom of the press belongs to those that own the distribution system. Perhaps that has always been the case, but in a mass society where nearly everyone is instantaneously plugged into a variety of national communications systems, wide-spread dissemination of the information is the crux of the matter. To make the claim that the right to print your own book means freedom of the press is to completely misunderstand the nature of a mass society. It is like making the claim that anyone with a pushcart can challenge Safeway supermarkets, or that any child can grow up to be president." Hoffman then closed with a yippie proverb: "Free speech is the right to shout `Theater' in a crowded fire."

I thought about "Steal This Book" as I read "Lobbying for Libraries and the Public's Access to Government Information," written by Helena's own Bernadine Abbott-Hoduski and just published by Scarecrow Press. I'd say Abbott-Hoduski is a professional boatrower of the fine tradition that says, "If the boat's not rocking, nobody's rowing." She's yelling "theater" in a crowded fire.

I don't plan to steal her book, but I won't offer to give it back. The book is one of a handful I expect to keep permanently for future reference. Citizen activists who feel a bunch of ignorant and arrogant talking heads control our government just because they can shout more loudly than the rest of us, investigative reporters, coalition builders, lawmakers and public administrators (to include librarians) who take to heart the trust we have given them, should read this book. The title doesn't convey that there's much sex and scandal enclosed, but there is. The scandal is the backroom kidney-punching that goes on as private interests maneuver to make money off public subsidy under the veil of "privatization." The sex is experienced by the public as corporate interests succeed.

This book is written by a person who knows how the intricacies of Congress, trade associations, coalitions and information in the electronic age actually work. You could read from back to front starting with the index, more than half of which contains names and acronyms you've never heard. You could read it from front to back, returning as your time permits to subject areas that will pump you up as an effective citizen in the same way as a few minutes with an old mentor would.

Abbott-Hoduski knows what she is talking about. Lobbying is about personal relationships between people. It's about gaining understanding about basic rules of organizations that effect the public interest, then applying patience and leadership in collaborative initiatives to make important change happen. A huge realization from this book is that our first mistake is letting corporate special interests occupy the competent ground of lobbying "the government." People just like us can make "our government" work for us and this book shows how.

In the same group with "A River Runs Through It," there's another essay by Norman MacLean called "The Packer, the Cook and the Hole in the Sky." In that story, MacLean tells of watching a barroom fight in Hamilton from underneath a poker table. From seeing the much larger numbers of logging and cowboy boots lined up against the wall, he learned that, "To be a good fighter, you first have to want to fight." The ratio of watchers to fighters is even worse now in Montana and U.S. politics. But, who knows? There may be some fighting hearts still pumping out here.

This book tells you how to organize a good fight in the chaos of our democracy. The first ingredient is the "will to fight" for our rights as citizens. If you decide you have that will, a means to fight and the ability to discern wrongs worth fighting to correct, then get a copy of "Lobbying for Libraries and the Public's Access to Government Information."

The U.S. Army Infantry Officers School in December 1970 didn�t leave me much time to listen closely to peace rioters like Abbie Hoffman. Hoffman was in the Cook County Jail, penning the introduction to �Steal This Book.� Then and there he wrote, Repressive tolerance is a real phenomenon. To talk of true freedom of the press, we must talk of the availability of the channels of communication that are designed to reach the entire population, or at least that segment of the population that might participate in such a dialogue. Freedom of the press belongs to those that own the distribution system. Perhaps that has always been the case, but in a mass society where nearly everyone is instantaneously plugged into a variety of national communications systems, wide-spread dissemination of the information is the crux of the matter. To make the claim that the right to print your own book means freedom of the press is to completely misunderstand the nature of a mass society. It is like making the claim that anyone with a pushcart can challenge Safeway supermarkets, or that any child can grow up to be president.� Hoffman then closed with a yippie proverb: �Free speech is the right to shout �Theater� in a crowded fire.�

I thought about �Steal This Book� as I read �Lobbying for Libraries and the Public�s Access to Government Information,� written by Helena�s own Bernadine Abbott-Hoduski and just published by Scarecrow Press. I�d say Abbott-Hoduski is a professional boatrower of the fine tradition that says, �If the boat�s not rocking, nobody�s rowing.� She�s yelling �theater� in a crowded fire.

I don�t plan to steal her book, but I won�t offer to give it back. The book is one of a handful I expect to keep permanently for future reference. Citizen activists who feel a bunch of ignorant and arrogant talking heads control our government just because they can shout more loudly than the rest of us, investigative reporters, coalition builders, lawmakers and public administrators (to include librarians) who take to heart the trust we have given them, should read this book. The title doesn�t convey that there�s much sex and scandal enclosed, but there is. The scandal is the backroom kidney-punching that goes on as private interests maneuver to make money off public subsidy under the veil of �privatization.� The sex is experienced by the public as corporate interests succeed.

This book is written by a person who knows how the intricacies of Congress, trade associations, coalitions and information in the electronic age actually work. You could read from back to front starting with the index, more than half of which contains names and acronyms you�ve never heard. You could read it from front to back, returning as your time permits to subject areas that will pump you up as an effective citizen in the same way as a few minutes with an old mentor would.

Abbott-Hoduski knows what she is talking about. Lobbying is about personal relationships between people. It�s about gaining understanding about basic rules of organizations that effect the public interest, then applying patience and leadership in collaborative initiatives to make important change happen. A huge realization from this book is that our first mistake is letting corporate special interests occupy the competent ground of lobbying �the government.� People just like us can make �our government� work for us and this book shows how.

In the same group with �A River Runs Through It,� there�s another essay by Norman MacLean called �The Packer, the Cook and the Hole in the Sky.� In that story, MacLean tells of watching a barroom fight in Hamilton from underneath a poker table. From seeing the much larger numbers of logging and cowboy boots lined up against the wall, he learned that, �To be a good fighter, you first have to want to fight.� The ratio of watchers to fighters is even worse now in Montana and U.S. politics. But, who knows? There may be some fighting hearts still pumping out here.

This book tells you how to organize a good fight in the chaos of our democracy. The first ingredient is the �will to fight� for our rights as citizens. If you decide you have that will, a means to fight and the ability to discern wrongs worth fighting to correct, then get a copy of �Lobbying for Libraries and the Public�s Access to Government Information.�

This is the most comprehesive book for an international student.
I would highly recommend you to have a copy of this handy book.

Alexander's "Longman English Grammar" is among the best of its type I have seen, though not without some drawbacks.

The coverage is exceptionally comprehensive, going over a large number of structures and forms that will keep most students going for a long time. The covers not only the main structures, but also some more specialised forms that students may need to be familiar with.

The explanations are generally easy to understand, though sometimes they get a little confusing. The examples provided are excellent and they often clear up any points of confusion that the explanations may have left the reader with.

Perhaps the biggest plus for this book is the fact that they include a section of exercises called "Context". Very few grammar practice books do this, prefering instead to have only sentence level practice. Alexander has provided an excellent opportunity to practice grammar in a wider context of language. The only pity is that he did not provide more like it, but some is better than none, and this alone makes the book worth getting.

Alexander's book is one of the best grammar practice books out there, and is an indispensible tool for the English student. If you can get one, I recommend doing so.

I like this grammar book because it contains every topic in concise. But I don't know if nowadays the author has edited or released a new edition for this book or not. ...

WOW This is the most valuable book I ever bought. An indispensable tool for intermediate students.

This is a book for all English students and teachers; a book you will keep for the rest of your life.

The Lover's Tongue was reviewed by Michael Posner in The Globe and Mail on October 20, 2003. Here is the text of that review:

The word clitoris made its first appearance in the English language in the early 17th century. Now that I have your attention, let me add that its spelling is a straight anglicization of the Greek word kleitoris, which likely evolved from another Greek word meaning hill and, in turn, from an even older Indo-European word, klei, meaning to lean or slope (and from which some modern words, like recline and decline, are derived).

The word penis, on the other hand, is Latin, and means, for obvious reasons, tail. In common parlance, of course, synonyms for penis are frequently associated with weapons. In fact, the Hebrew word zayin, a slang word for penis, actually means weapon. Not incidentally, the letter zayin -- the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- is shaped like a rod with a crown on it.

I learned much of this thanks to The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex (Insomniac Press), a new book by Mark Morton, a mild-mannered assistant professor of English literature at the University of Winnipeg. I'm not sure how merry it is, but it is certainly exhaustive, a complete inventory of how words like clitoris, penis -- and scores of others that respectable family newspapers are not in the habit of printing -- arrived in the language.

Morton, who earlier wrote Cupboard Love: a Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, as well as The End, a book about how previous eras celebrated the end of their millennia, says he was drawn to writing a book on the etymology of sex for a simple but compelling reason: He thought it would sell.

"I don't see much reason to write scholarly articles that nobody probably is going to read," says Morton. "But I like taking the academic research and making it accessible to people. Everyone is interested in sex and even people who don't know what etymology means are interested in it."

But, as he prudently notes in his introduction, it's a book that best lends itself to an occasional, well, probe, rather than an extended sitting. Dipping in and out, one can learn that the origin of the infamous f-word is probably not, as is commonly thought, an abbreviation of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, but more likely derives from old Scandinavian words fukka (Norwegian) and focka (Swedish) meaning to copulate.

Similarly, you may be both surprised and enlightened to learn that the word orchid comes from the Greek orkhis, which means testicle. And orkhis itself evolved from an older Indo-European word ergh, meaning to mount. Thus, explains Morton, who for 10 years has also been resident etymologist on CBC Radio's Definitely Not the Opera, do we have the modern English word orchestra -- evolved from the Greek orkheisthai, meaning dance -- perhaps owing to how dance simulates sex.

There are dozens of such linguistic jewels sprinkled through Morton's breezily readable text. He spent three months writing it, another nine months researching, a task greatly facilitated, he says, by the Internet. The Oxford English Dictionary is available on-line, which allowed him to rummage through its entire data base in quest of words with sexual connotations.

Other books on language, of course, have taken titillating aim at the subject of sex. There are densely academic three-volume sets to be digested on sex in English literature under the Stuarts, for example, as well as myriad titles taking a popular approach to sexual slang. But The Lover's Tongue may well be the most comprehensive etymological treatment. Anal, oral, body parts -- it's all here in what amounts to a linguistic history of smut.

Some words now effectively taboo in civilized discourse were once in common usage, including the vulgar term for the female sex organ. The precise origins of that well-known c-word, Morton concedes, are obscure, with possible Greek, Latin, Arabic, Germanic and Sanskrit antecedents. Morton posits that it may also be related to the word quaint, which was used in 14th-century England to mean intricately designed, and which in turn developed out of the Latin cognitum, meaning knowledgeable.

And in modern times, at least, he notes, many common descriptives of the vagina carry decidedly negative associations, including gristle-grabber, snatch, red snapper and dick muncher. "They're all manifestations of what Freud called the vagina dentata."

Working in the basement of his north-end Winnipeg home, Morton says, he found nothing remotely erotic about the enterprise. And it shows: His tone throughout combines detached bemusement with scholarly, straight-ahead explication. "Even if you're dealing with a word that denotes extremely erotic activity, you're thinking about it in a way that somehow blunts all that. But now that I read it, I'm sometimes shocked, even to the point of thinking, 'I don't know if I want my mom to read this.' I don't know if she'll be buying copies and sending it to friends."

Even Morton's colleagues at the U of W, he hints, are having some trouble with it, though that may be less a function of its salacious content than the fact that so commercial an exercise strays dangerously off the traditional academic paths.

There is little in Morton's background that would make him an obvious candidate for writing a book of sexual etymology. He grew up on a wheat farm outside Weyburn, Sask., a vast, treeless plain that prompted the young Morton to wonder about his own origins and how he ended up there. "I think that's somehow related to my interest in etymology."

And although there was no library in the house, there was "a big, old dictionary which even as a child, I remember poring over." He taught himself Latin phrases and tried to learn Greek at 12. "The fascination with language is very deep in me."

Now, he intends to broaden his range with his next book, a cultural history of emotions. Says Morton: "I think it's a much bigger subject than just etymology."

I just bought this book last week, but I tore through it in about two days -- it covers hundreds of words from the amorous arts, and explains where they all came from, and how they've changed meaning over the centuries. For instance, I never knew that so many words for the penis existed (or used to exist)! And it's amazing to learn that the word "testicle" is related to the word "testify" (both come from a Latin source that means "witness," because according to the book the testicles were considered a "witness" to a man's virility in ancient times.) The book does a good job, too, of discussing how cultural attitudes are revealed through the language we use. It mentions, for instance, that the word "pudendum" comes from a Latin source that means "to be ashamed," which obviously reflects a negative cultural attitude toward women's genitalia! Not all of the words that are discussed in the book are so explicit, though -- lots of them are about love words, too. There's a chapter on terms of endearment, and one on words of desire, and one on words of beauty, and so on. The introduction also includes a web site address where you can go to read some samples from the book, and where you can also suggest other words that might be included in the next edition. It's http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~morton/lovers_tongue.htm in case you want to check out some sample excerpts. The book is often hilarious -- the author has a wicked sense of humor! I highly recommend this book for anyone who's interested in language (though it'd also make a good gift at a wedding shower or for valentine's day)! -- W.A.

Have you ever wondered where the word vagina comes from? Me neither, but after reading Mark Morton's new book, The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex, I can tell you.

Vagina is a Latin word, which means sheath, or scabbard-basically a holster for a sword. Pretty vivid imagery, huh? After reading Morton's book, I can assure you that the imagery becomes even racier (racy is a seventeenth-century word describing wine, specifically, a sprightly wine).

Morton's book reads like a dirty dictionary. He describes all of the bad words you know, and then a whole lot more which you've probably never even heard of. The subjects range from words related to anatomical parts, to sexual acts and even to words describing sexual orientation. Did you know that heterosexuals are known as straight because homosexuals used to be called "bent"?

Morton not only fills readers in with this fun trivia, but he provides highly researched histories of each word. He explains the etymological links between words in language easy enough for his bawdy readers to understand. Best of all, Morton writes with a relentless, self-aware humour. When describing the word tongue and all of its dirty counterparts, he notes, "As for the phrase tongue-in-cheek, fear not: that idiom has nothing to do with the buttocks, so you can continue to use it in polite company." Morton's prose is subtle, eloquent, but sure to take every opportunity for a below-the-belt pun.

Throughout the book, Morton quotes classical writers, celebrities and historical figures to provide another take on the subject. These are separated from the central text in small text bubbles, so that if you become extremely engrossed in the chapter about copulation words, you can just skip over the line from Shakespeare.

The biggest problem with Morton's book is that it is essentially a reference book without an index. While he acknowledges that readers will likely not want to read through the whole work in one sitting, he doesn't realize they might not want to sit through one even chapter. I would like to be able to pick up the book when I have an itching to know about a particular word, and then be able to find that word quickly.

Despite the lack of `quick-access,' this book is very tempting. It's fun, sexy and laugh-out-loud funny. This is linguistic entertainment at its best. After all, where else could you find five pages of words for the penis? For your ribald friend, this will make a perfect holiday gift.

[The preceding review first appeared in The Link, authored by Karen Bisken, and published by Concordia University.]

I just bought this book last week, but I tore through it in about two days -- it covers hundreds of words from the amorous arts, and explains where they all came from, and how they've changed meaning over the centuries. For instance, I never knew that so many words for the penis existed (or used to exist)! And it's amazing to learn that the word "testicle" is related to the word "testify" (both come from a Latin source that means "witness," because according to the book the testicles were considered a "witness" to a man's virility in ancient times.) The book does a good job, too, of discussing how cultural attitudes are revealed through the language we use. It mentions, for instance, that the word "pudendum" comes from a Latin source that means "to be ashamed," which obviously reflects a negative cultural attitude toward women's genitalia! Not all of the words that are discussed in the book are so explicit, though -- lots of them are about love words, too. There's a chapter on terms of endearment, and one on words of desire, and one on words of beauty, and so on. The introduction also includes a web site address where you can go to read some samples from the book, and where you can also suggest other words that might be included in the next edition. ... The book is often hilarious -- the author has a wicked sense of humor! I highly recommend this book for anyone who's interested in language (though it'd also make a good gift at a wedding shower or for valentine's day)! -- W.A.

The Lover's Tongue was reviewed by Michael Posner in Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail on October 20, 2003. Here is the text of that review:

The word "clitoris" made its first appearance in the English language in the early 17th century. Now that I have your attention, let me add that its spelling is a straight anglicization of the Greek word "kleitoris," which likely evolved from another Greek word meaning "hill" and, in turn, from an even older Indo-European word, "klei," meaning "to lean or slope" (and from which some modern words, like "recline" and "decline," are derived).

The word "penis," on the other hand, is Latin, and means, for obvious reasons, "tail." In common parlance, of course, synonyms for "penis" are frequently associated with weapons. In fact, the Hebrew word "zayin," a slang word for "penis," actually means "weapon." Not incidentally, the letter zayin -- the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- is shaped like a rod with a crown on it.

I learned much of this thanks to The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex (Insomniac Press), a new book by Mark Morton, a mild-mannered assistant professor of English literature at the University of Winnipeg. I'm not sure how merry it is, but it is certainly exhaustive, a complete inventory of how words like clitoris, penis -- and scores of others that respectable family newspapers are not in the habit of printing -- arrived in the language.

Morton, who earlier wrote Cupboard Love: a Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, as well as The End, a book about how previous eras celebrated the end of their millennia, says he was drawn to writing a book on the etymology of sex for a simple but compelling reason: He thought it would sell.

"I don't see much reason to write scholarly articles that nobody probably is going to read," says Morton. "But I like taking the academic research and making it accessible to people. Everyone is interested in sex and even people who don't know what etymology means are interested in it."

But, as he prudently notes in his introduction, it's a book that best lends itself to an occasional, well, probe, rather than an extended sitting. Dipping in and out, one can learn that the origin of the infamous f-word is probably not, as is commonly thought, an abbreviation of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, but more likely derives from old Scandinavian words "fukka" (Norwegian) and "focka" (Swedish) meaning "to copulate."

Similarly, you may be both surprised and enlightened to learn that the word "orchid" comes from the Greek "orkhis," which means "testicle." And "orkhis" itself evolved from an older Indo-European word "ergh," meaning "to mount." Thus, explains Morton, who for 10 years has also been resident etymologist on CBC Radio's Definitely Not the Opera, do we have the modern English word "orchestra" -- evolved from the Greek "orkheisthai," meaning "dance" -- perhaps owing to how dance simulates sex.

There are dozens of such linguistic jewels sprinkled through Morton's breezily readable text. He spent three months writing it, another nine months researching, a task greatly facilitated, he says, by the Internet. The Oxford English Dictionary is available on-line, which allowed him to rummage through its entire data base in quest of words with sexual connotations.

Other books on language, of course, have taken titillating aim at the subject of sex. There are densely academic three-volume sets to be digested on sex in English literature under the Stuarts, for example, as well as myriad titles taking a popular approach to sexual slang. But The Lover's Tongue may well be the most comprehensive etymological treatment. Anal, oral, body parts -- it's all here in what amounts to a linguistic history of smut.

Some words now effectively taboo in civilized discourse were once in common usage, including the vulgar term for the female sex organ. The precise origins of that well-known c-word, Morton concedes, are obscure, with possible Greek, Latin, Arabic, Germanic and Sanskrit antecedents. Morton posits that it may also be related to the word "quaint," which was used in 14th-century England to mean "intricately designed," and which in turn developed out of the Latin "cognitum," meaning "knowledgeable."

And in modern times, at least, he notes, many common descriptives of the vagina carry decidedly negative associations, including "gristle-grabber," "snatch," "red snapper" and "dick muncher." "They're all manifestations of what Freud called the vagina dentata."

Working in the basement of his north-end Winnipeg home, Morton says, he found nothing remotely erotic about the enterprise. And it shows: His tone throughout combines detached bemusement with scholarly, straight-ahead explication. "Even if you're dealing with a word that denotes extremely erotic activity, you're thinking about it in a way that somehow blunts all that. But now that I read it, I'm sometimes shocked, even to the point of thinking, 'I don't know if I want my mom to read this.' I don't know if she'll be buying copies and sending it to friends."

Even Morton's colleagues at the U of W, he hints, are having some trouble with it, though that may be less a function of its salacious content than the fact that so commercial an exercise strays dangerously off the traditional academic paths.

There is little in Morton's background that would make him an obvious candidate for writing a book of sexual etymology. He grew up on a wheat farm outside Weyburn, Sask., a vast, treeless plain that prompted the young Morton to wonder about his own origins and how he ended up there. "I think that's somehow related to my interest in etymology."

And although there was no library in the house, there was "a big, old dictionary which even as a child, I remember poring over." He taught himself Latin phrases and tried to learn Greek at 12. "The fascination with language is very deep in me."

Now, he intends to broaden his range with his next book, a cultural history of emotions. Says Morton: "I think it's a much bigger subject than just etymology."

This is an excellent resources on phonics instruction. It not only gives practical instructional strategies and activities but it also explains the rationale of why the activities are meaningful and necessary. This is a must have resource for a first or second grade reading teacher.

One of the best professional how-to books in education. I've tried the principles from the book and they work with my hard to teach students. It was also an easy read.

I have ten years of teaching experience, from pre-school to third grade. It has been easy teaching about 80% of my students to read, over the years. They respond well to my small guided reading groups, carefully planned literacy centers, and limited but focused phonics instruction.

But the other 10 percent%? Well, they have needed something different, and this book, "Making Sense of Phonics," is it. Isabel Beck strikes a perfect balance in this book between theory, research, and application. I read the book over a weekend after attending a seminar about how brain imaging and neuroscience is helping to make sense of the process to learn to read. Beck's research was discussed at length and quite convincing, and so I bought the book, read it, and began teaching lessons using her protocol to the 6 lowest readers in my class.

Results? After just three weeks I already note marked improvement in these students' ability to sound out words, blend sounds, and make the connection between the letters on the page and the sound they produce with their mouth. It's fast paced and simple to do, once you've taught just a few lessons. If they continue at this rate, I will be completely sold on it and plan to present to the primary teachers at my school in hopes of convincing others to use it, as needed.

I think that a parent could just as easily do this with their child as well; in fact, it could be even better because the child would receive that one on one attention. It does seem pretty important to stick to Beck's suggestions regarding how to emphasize letter sound correspondance to all parts of the word as opposed to just initial placement.

Bottom line, if your student or child is a struggling reader and you've tried lots of things and are going nuts because they know a word on one page and forget in on the next or they just look at the first letter and then make a guess, then this is the teaching strategy for you!

I discovered this book because it is part of my district's Reading First grant library. The grant itself is fairly amazing and has resulted in our having an awesome set of instructional books along with all of the teachers receiving their own Tungsten Palm Pilot. I took a look at Beck's work to get a better handle on phonics interventions in the classroom and it definitely proved useful. Early intervention is essential in the author's mind (and in everybody else's) which is intrinsic to Reading First's emphasis on explicit, systematic phonic instruction. Beck's defining of terms was of great benefit. I needed some background on the meaning of diphthongs and digraphs as I rarely encounter such lingo on a daily or annual basis. How the alphabetic principle applies to learning was also illuminating. Some of the specific methods, such as the Word Pocket and Word Building sequences, will be of assistance to teachers. Unfortunately, like most education books, this one is overpriced, but that is not the fault of the author or her subject.

In this book, Beck outlines procedures for essential beginning reading activities such as letter-sound correspondences, blending, and word building. I really liked how this book focused on classroom practice, and how the author applies every concept to real students. Beck also supplies appendixes to supply the materials needed to make your own centers that were used in the classroom practice examples.

I really liked the idea for word pockets, where students place the letter where they heard the sound(beginning, middle, or end.) Also, now each one of my students now has their own set of alphabet cards. When we have free time, they are busy putting letters together to make a word.

I have just finished reading, for the first time, one of the best books on writing craft I have read to date: "A Manual of Writer's Tricks" by David L. Carroll. I was already recommending it to others when I had not read more than ten pages. This is the craft of writing reduced to the simplicity of useful principle. Those principles are accompanied by sufficient relevant analysis and precision example to illuminate those very same principles; and thus they are useful "tricks" indeed. The author has rendered a great service to the craft and writers. I highly recommend this book.

This book is page after page of distilled advice on writing. No amusing anecdotes. No inspirational thoughts. These suggestions could be found in more verbose books, but as a quick reference this one is hard to beat.

In A Manual Of Writer's Tricks: Essential Advice For Fiction And Nonfiction Writers, David Carroll (Emmy Award- winning television writer and author of twenty-five books, including How To Prepare Your Manuscript For A Publisher) successfully collaborates with Sheree Bykofsky (literary agent and co-executive editor of the New York Public Library Desk Reference) to provide essential tips, tricks