Language Arts Books

I have found this book to be a great tool for anyone in managment or choosing to go into management. It is targeted toward the library management segment, but the history, theory and anecdotal scenarios are applicable to all areas of business. It is well-written and even funny while communicating the points desired.

This was for a class and I was surprised at how much I actually liked in this book. The chapters are part of larger sections that deal with library management in general. The text makes logical progressions and the reading wasn't nearly as dry as most texts. Plus there are lots of examples and scenarios which were interesting to think about and to help get discussions going.

Not so bad if you have an interest in this area or if it is required.

This book was required for one of my Master's degree classes in Information Science. If you are interested in a career as an Information Professional, I would recommend reading this book.

This is a fantastic resource. It's chock-full of theory, which can make for slow, dry reading. However, I would say this is pretty much a required text for anyone in a library management position.

An expresive emotional truth of one's thoughts throughout time in their lifetime. To the Point and a brilliant read for one who is looking for something to share a point of emotion an understanding of guidance, lost and found.

I found this book in error on the AH website. Can't find any other releases by the author. The work is consistantly good with moments of brilliance. This genre of writing is rare these days but nice to see new work of this nature. Hopefully more to come. Where's Part Two???

This book was an excellent read and almost mind blowing, emotionally at times...looking for other books by this authour..A DEFINATE MUST HAVE!!!!!

I found this book in error on the AH website. Can't find any other releases by the author. The work is consistantly good with moments of brilliance. This genre of writing is rare these days but nice to see new work of this nature. Hopefully more to come. Where's Part Two???

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.

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.

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

This is one of my favorite tapes for learning Spanish. Fun, and easy to understand songs for the entire family.

The audio is of high quality, the speakers have clear voices and the cards are very helpful. My only problem with it is that they go too fast for a beginner, but they all do. It seems obvious to me...slow down! When a baby is learning to speak, you don't say "apple" all of the time, sometimes you have to say "aaa pull" I have to stop the tape player over and over and over........However, I do recomend this. I would buy it again.

My daughter (age 10) and I have been playing Linguafun card games for a few days and really enjoying it. The cards guarantee success in speaking in sentences right away, rather than learning numbers and colors and just a few phrases at first, the way I learned in school. It's spurred us both on to learn more--I only wish there were more sets of cards from Linguafun.

I am a Spanish teacher, and have used the Linguafun cards in the classroom. I was amazed at how easily my students learned Spanish using these cards and cassette! The set comes with instructions for many different games, but our favorite in the classroom is "War". I have reviewed and tried many products for teaching Spanish, and Linguafun is by far THE BEST! It's the easiest way I have ever seen of learning a foreign language. I can't wait for all the other languages to be available

This what this book is about. The reader finds out how much he can discover while reading a literary or non literary work...

If you work with stylistics this is a basic book. What makes the book special is that it does not only introduces what Fowler calls linguistic criticism but also discuss many problematic points that anyone who works with stylistics faces. The books covers every topic of this sort of work, from terminology to practical analysis.

As an introduction to the critical study of discourse, Linguistic Criticism gives special attention to literary texts. According to Roger Fowler, Linguistics is the support to a criticism that would consider both language and context in order to point out the special effects of language into the discourse. For him, the task of considering the subjective aspects of literature with a scientific eye towards its discourse only can be achieved with the support of Linguistics. A part from that, the author does not believe that literature is the only kind of discourse that deserves such approach. The reader will also find a large bibliography about every topic discussed.

George Fowler's Linguistic Criticism is a fabulous book for those who love to work with stylistics or other kinds of linguistic criticism. The author coments several aspects of this sort of analysis as well as reviews some of the theoretical work on the subject. His point of view about the theories is ilustrated by fine examples from literature as well as from every day language. Excellent for specialists as well for beginners, the author has a very special style - he is at once simple and deep! You have to read it!

If nowadays Linguistics Scholars have too much to fight over little small branchs of the big Discipline Linguistics has become, why don't the begginers at this "science" start to take profit of all that? If you need some ideas of how you can combine some of the linguistics traditions without breaking them into small unuseful stuff, here you got many! The author reviews how can one well use linguistics towards literature getting acurated analysis. How? You have to read the book! But be aware it is not a book for outsiders of the linguistics world... Then you can think a little more about what linguistics is, what will the cool as in order to work with it you do need to think instead of fighting...

We happened upon this book by chance. It is the first curriculum my child has actually thanked me for and looked forward to doing. I can only hope that this is a taste of the future of textbooks. I highly recommend this book to any educator of fifth through tenth graders, but especially to those who teach visual-spatial students.

I had the fantastic honor of meeting Teri Tibbett in person and my children worked with her for two days. She is such a wonderful teacher and a joy to listen to! She shared from this book and I had to buy it. The information is presented in an interesting way and you can have fun learning history and how music is tied into it. I can't say enough good things about this book--buy it. You wont' be disappointed! Look for her other books at tibbet.com too. Highly recommended!

I used this book in Summer School this year with 9,10 and 11 year olds and found it to be an excellent blueprint for study of American Music. Tibbett has done her research and provides a comprehensive look at the cultural backgrounds to today's music. The examples on the CD are from original artists when possible and when not, Tibbett steps in admirably.

This book is well organized, easy to use, and will entice your reluctant readers and writers to learn more because the subject is music! You students will be thrilled when their culture is the subject of the lesson. At my school we even used it with teens and just accelerated the pace abit. Thank you Teri for capturing your knowledge and love of music, culture, language and children all in one place!

Incredibly inciteful, perceptive, and well-thought out; this book should be required reading in all college English departments. Mr. Carroll approaches literature with the rationality of science, but with none of its often jargon-filled dryness. Fascinating analyses of the evolutionary motives that not only make us tick, but some of our best-loved literary characters as well. A guide to reality, via fiction.

The human imagination is the fount of extraordinary creativity. "Flights of fancy" take us to places and ideas that only the mind can conceive, places where we create our own reality, if only for a time, a place where only "credibility" is a gauge, and often not even that. We've created more deities in our image than any single god can hold. We've traversed Aquinas's labyrinth of angelic worlds were no human has ever gone, and probably never will. Milton took us to Paradise, and explains how we lost it. Dante takes us through hell, purgatory, and back to Paradise. Marx's Utopia is a wonderlust of wishful aspirations and neurotic tensions. Freud's landscape of the psyche is unparalleled in its imagination, however false empirically. Borges takes us into places we can't get out, and we love the dead-ends. Science fiction takes us to worlds we want to explore without the constraints of our present limitations. It's all wonderful, delightful, provocative, and truly human. It's also fiction. We sometimes forget that.

The imaginative arts allow us "freedom" that the sciences, for example, limit. But that "freedom" is our window into ourselves, a projection of every possible nuance one can imagine. It allows us to create and fabricate all sorts of "alternative realities," explore different possibilities, stretch our limits, and go in directions that physics won't allow. Even those "worlds" that bear close resemblance to our own, such as Shakespeare's or Byron's, are still distant lands. We take a journey into realms only our imaginations understand. We must never lose this precious inheritance. But we also must not "confuse" it for the real. Nor try to "codify" it with overarching theories of interpretative hegemony. It remains a frontier that should not be reduced to ideology or the scientific method. That is both perversion and a "category mistake." It boxes-in that vestige of energy that must not be contained.

At first blush, literary Darwinism seems eminently sensible, using sociobiological insights of "life" itself to better understand our "creative lives." After all, we are humans first, and understanding our biological natures surely aids our understanding of each other, not the least of which is our own creative projects. With this level of approach, I have no cavil. It is clearly superior to the dogmatic Ivory Tower Drivel that has infected the Humanities over the past half century. Having "a foot on the ground" cannot but help bring our Humanities folk back to reality. But I cannot endorse a new "empirical" literary theory to replace the old ideological paradigm, however more sensible, because it just adds another template through which to force us through a sieve.

Being empirically-oriented myself, I cannot fault an English-literature professor suggesting we "re-impose" some reality in our literary theory. It's long been absent. Moreover, he's working in an environment hostile to such "realities," but his treatment is worse than the disease. He's advocating placing readers under imaging devices (e.g., fMRIs) to measure their responses to the literary experience, to tabulate the data, and show how it comports with all the other evolutionary work done in anthropology, biology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, etc. This is positively garrish, a project Darwin himself would find repugnant!

Let's situate Carroll in his predicament, and try to understand why he would make such an outlandish proposal. As a former Arnoldean, steeped in the Liberal Humanistic Tradition, he's convinced that only an appeal to "empiricism" will lift off the shackles of the Postmodernist Hegemon that dominates the Humanities. He's convinced that the "entrenched interests" will not budge otherwise, because it's their "bread and butter" to be contrarian, subversive, and radically irrational. He may be right. Certainly the English Departments in Anglo-American academies are a species of their own. And their ideological spue is toxic as well as dissonant. Asking why it persists, despite the onslaught of criticism from all other disciplines, only validates Carroll's point. It's entrenched.

But there is more. Carroll claims that the nexus of Marxism, Freudianism, and Deconstructionism creates a "whole" theory of the "world," arguably false, but complete. This claim needs to be taken seriously, even if I find it preposterous. Do these ideological flights of fancy really make a composite whole? Carroll insists the "nail" was sealed with Deconstructionism, which denies everything but "rhetoric," and then makes rhetoric so indeterminate, that all that is left is the assertion of the "will to power." Marxism and Freudianism just fill-in on the margins when anxieties get too tough. It's an interesting claim. And, if the claim is true, why? Why are English Departments exempt from substantiating their dogmas? No other academic discipline is "allowed" this latitude.

These questions need answers before we start forcing the "arts" through the "scientific" paradigm. Gilbert Ryle's famous phrase "category mistake" just screams at this indiscretion. And the "cure" is just as unsettling as the "sickness." Again, don't misunderstand me. Biological insights certainly enhance our understanding of imaginative works, because they both herald from "life" itself. Here we're on common ground. But "empiricizing" the imaginative arts should seem terribly dissonant, and "measuring" the aesthetic experience is fundamentally incoherent. Even if it could be done, why would we? To save the Humanities from itself? The prescription is worse than the problem.

Notwithstanding this broader reservation, Carroll's articulate, incisive, and well-crafted Humanistic scholarship blends with sociobiological facts and theory to produce one of the most sustained indictments of the impoverished Humanities and a compelling raison d'etre to look to proven sociobiological theory, coupled with Wilson's advocacy of "consilience" (unity of knowledge), to move Humanistic Study forward to a far more promising frontier. There's no looking back.

The greatest mind of the 19th Century, perhaps of any century, was that of Charles Darwin. If any mind of the 20th Century might be said to equal Darwin's it would be that of Edward Osborne Wilson. An entomologist, it was Wilson who demonstrated the implications of insect societies for human cultures. His ideas were first promulgated in his 1975 book "Sociobiology" and bore full fruit with "Consilience" in 1998. In "Consilience", Wilson proposed that, as humans were as much a part of Nature as any other creature, our behaviour traits, including the arts and literature, should be viewed in the light of evolution. Wilson demonstrated how the human spirit would be expanded, not diminished, by such a framework. The research ensuing since "Sociobiology" has affirmed Wilson's insight. How would such scenario apply to literature?

Joseph Carroll, a literary critic, incorporates Wilson's insights throughout this collection. Carroll argues that our outlook on the world would be expanded, not confined, by consciously applying Darwin's principles to our literature. Many authors, he notes, have done this through an intuitive sense. Jane Austen, hardly a Darwinian, still presented her characters fully integrated within their natural environment. Austen distinguished between which environments suited a character and which left the individual feeling displaced. For Carroll, this is an encouraging sign. Observant and astute writers can apply what he calls the "Darwinian paradigm", imparting a more natural and plausible foundation to fiction. He wants new writers to understand how to employ those principles from the outset. In this, Carroll is following where Wilson is pointing. The result, Carroll feels, will be an improved basis for literature's production and analysis.

Narrative itself, not only common to the human condition, but apparently necessary to it, reflects our ancestral past. As Wilson pointed out, human beings are a social, not a solitary, animal. Carroll's thesis furthers this idea by noting that narrative accounts are a means of identification within a community. Depicted human interactions must reflect that situation and be based on firm knowledge of Darwinian principles, not on assumptions nor sketchy awareness. He criticises authors who pay lip service to the "Darwinian paradigm" without truly understanding its tenets.

Carroll's thesis is based on what is known as "the Adapted Mind". Our mental states, whether in writing or reading, are derived from the long evolutionary path we've traversed. We aren't separated or "elevated" from it. Much of his attention is given to revealing the false notion of "poststructuralism" - that there are no "truths" [whether absolute or relative] and that authors have no intent in their writings, simply expression formed by local "culture". Darwin's idea, for example, could only have occured in Victorian Britain. Obviously, in such a framework, evolutionary roots have no role in composition, reading or criticism. It seems trite when Carroll writes "the subject matter of literature is human experience", but he feels we need to be reminded of that truth. Writing, he contends, must reflect that truism more forcefully than is often the case. Steps have already been taken, he notes. Such works as "Biopoetics" and "Homo Aestheticus" are indicators of a more realistic approach in fiction.

Carroll's three part collection - a view of the "literary landscape", theory and practical criticism, and assessments of Darwian biographers and critics, is a splendid example of how consilience works. He is opening a new frontier of both writing and reading, and is optimistic for its success. He stresses that a merger of the humanities and sciences, is not only desireable, but necessary. A better knowledge of ourselves must involve a better knowledge of our world. That can only be beneficial to all humanity and its habitat, using literature as a means. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The various essays, articles and book reviews comprising Joseph Carroll's Literary Darwinism are rooted in two principles: first, humans share a common nature that can be revealed through the scientific method; second, this universal nature is the product of relentless Darwinian selection over eons. While this is obviously orthodox stuff in the world of behavioral biology, these notions remain quite heretical among the social constructivists who continue to dominate the world of literary studies. From Carroll's simple principles flow corollaries with large implications for literary studies and behavioral biology. The most important corollary for literary scholars is that a large proportion of all that has been said, written, or merely thought in the realm of literary theory and criticism over the last several decades is obviously and often breathtakingly wrong. This is because all of the dominant "poststructuralist" approaches--Lacanian, Foucauldian, Marxist, radical feminist, deconstructionist, and others--are organized around an adamantine core of social constructivist theory that is profoundly at odds both with Darwinian theory and with practical research in what Steven Pinker calls "the new sciences of human nature."

Carroll's argument is really quite simple. All literary criticism and theory is ultimately based on theories of human nature (even the theory that there is no such thing as human nature is a theory of human nature). Literary scholarship constructed on unsound theoretical foundations--on essentially faulty premises about human tendencies and potential--must itself be unsound, no matter how internally self-consistent. The chapters of Literary Darwinism articulate Carroll's vision of a foundation-up reorganization of literary studies along Darwinian lines. Carroll describes a Darwinian Literary Study where judgments about literary plots, characters, and themes are rooted in the bedrock of evolutionary theory, are disciplined by the findings of scientific research, and, when possible, are tested using scientific methods.

Literary scholars and evolutionists who are interested in the concept of consilience will also be interested in Literary Darwinism, which represents one of the most serious and sustained attempts to establish consilience between the humanities and behavioral biology-and to plumb its implications.

DiYanni gives excellent explanation and great examples of poems, plays, and short stories in his book. I actually bought this book for a Lit. class and I knew I would hate the class and the book when I saw how 'big' the boook was. Turns out I loved them both; and DiYanni in my opinion is an excellent author. This book is a great read for pleasure as well as study.

The book arrived in great condition and in a very timely manner. I would purchase from this seller in the future.

This book not only contains a lot of excellent literature, but it also gives instruction on how to read and analyze literature more effectively. This is a book I come back to again and again.

I bought this book instead of buying the 2nd edition. I figured it would be exactly the same. It isn't. It has a lot of the same stories but some are missing, like "The Lottery." Luckily it's a book of short stories, so the stories that are missing you can get online. The price is worth the work. It's half the price of the new book. A paper back book is not worth 58 dollars. Buy this look up the other stories.

Plus it's easy to navigate.

I bought this as a gift for my son. It will be my last purchase at Amazon as long as they continue to promote products that encourage animal fighting.

Incredibly easy to use! Plainly explains concepts I was never taught in High School. I appreciated its emphasis on different types of speech and writing, from the most familiar to the most formal.

I bought this book for an English class last winter. Now, I'm a music major and I have tons of music books, but I must say that this is the most useful book I have ever bought. Everything is explained in a concise and direct manner, and is easy to find. Whenever I'm in doubt of how to use a punctuation mark, or how to phrase something correctly I always come to this book. Whenever I have to write a paper, this book is right next to me. I love that its relatively small, too. Great book. Highly recomended.

I absolutely loved this book. Although I am not a writer, I know I will defineatly use this book when I am writing technical papers. This book is so nifty. It has examples and an easy table of contents. It's like a bible for writing. :)

This book was used in our daughter's virtual school classroom for a project she needed to complete. We ordered it through Amazon so she could take it to her room, sit back and read it. It is entertaining and thorough. I would recommend this book for ideas and creativity to other parents.

I am thrilled to have this book. It was recommended to me by one of my graduate professors. It is a great way to discuss the writing process to kids. The pictures are great and it is an awesome read-aloud! I would recommend this book for the elementary grades.

I'm a children's book writer and the author of the picture book "Otto's Rainy Day". I recently discovered this book just as I was about to do a book reading and give a presentation at my local library about the writing and publishing process. Loreen Leedy has laid out the process in a structurally logical and easy-to-follow format that parallels what real adult writers do. She also gives wonderful examples to illustrate her points. I used the book to talk about how my book came to be a published book, from manuscript to print, but to also relate it to how kids can also write and create their own books (they don't have to wait for a publisher!). It helped me shift the focus from just me, the adult writer, to hopefully inspiring kids to create their own fun writing project.

Look At My Book: How Kids Can Write & Illustrate Terrific Books by experienced children's author Loreen Leedy teaches young people how to write their own books: brainstorm ideas, get ready to do research, the design and illustrate a fantastic new book. The colorful artwork is crisp and clean, clearly illustrating various steps of the process. Offering tips for coming up with characters, settings, the perfect title, making revisions, choosing art supplies, binding the pages of one's new book and more, Look At My Book is a picturebook that truly stimulates creativity and imagination. Highly recommended.