Modern Manners Books

I wish I had this book two years ago when my husband and I first got married. It has great ideas, recipes, and explanations. The book is a wonderful resource being easy and interesting to read. Great for both conservative and reform Jews. While it is definitely Mom oriented, it is great for anyone who wants to bring their household (even if this is just you and your spouse) together on Shabbat.

I use this book every Friday evening now! Lots of good information about recipes, blessings, and dinner topics with the kids, very worthwhile purchase.

Absolutely a great read for any modern Jewish woman/mother looking to reconnect with Judaism and celebrate Shabbat with her own family. The book was written in a completely non-judgemental way and was very accessible, without causing immense waves of guilt and shame that I needed a book to help me out!

Perfect for a beginner looking to be more observant of Shabbat or for a mom trying to make Shabbat more enjoyable for her children. She presents ways to slowly incorporate a more observant way of life into your own modern, fast-paced life. The stories were funny, the suggestions were excellent and her go-to challah recipe is now mine as well!

Worth every cent! Much thanks to my husband for buying this as a gift when our children were born - I now have confidence that my children will have fond memories of Shabbat when they're older.

Our Family is so thankful for this book! Not only is it funny, but is also easy to read. This book gave me the confidence to celebrate Shabbat. We are already talking about "taking it to the next level" by incorporating the weekly Torah portions - this will be a book I will refer to for years to come.

Loved this book so much that I bought another for a friend (which she will receive for a Hanukkah gift). Very reasonable approach to celebrating Shabbat in today's modern world.

I bought this volume of stories simply to get a copy of Fitzgerald's "May Day" which I'd read in one of my college texts and then could not find for years. I have always felt that "May Day" would make a superb film--and the screenwriter could lift most of the dialogue right out of the story. It is that good and simple and dramatic. Actually every one of the stories in this collection is first rate. Here is Fitzgerald, only in his 20's, writing of American aspirations before, during and after World War I. And no one wrote about this subject better than he did. The characters are rich and complex, all of them dissatisfied with the bones that life has thrown them, all of them desiring what others have. The reader sees their foibles and loves them anyway. These are not perfect people. They are real people in a time of trouble--fighting, most of them, simply to stay afloat in a world changing faster than anyone would have thought possible. I cannot recommend these brilliant stories highly enough. There is also a brief life and appreciation of Fitzgerald in this lovely Scribner edition.

The literary voice of the ninteen-twenties' "Jazz Age," F. Scott Fitzgerald was out of step with the grimmer thirties. Facing his wife's insanity, increasing alcoholism, and his own obsolesence as a writer, the stories collected here show Fitzgerald facing his demons in bracingly honest prose. If "Crazy Sunday" and the other tales of the adventures of Pat Hobby, down-and-out screenwriter, feel a bit like autobiographical wallow, and "Family In The Wind," about a doctor in the midst of a country tornado, is an interesting if uncharacteristic journey into Steinbeck country, it's the title story of the collection that's worth the price of admission.
Charlie Wales is an ex-broker, returned to Paris after all the good times have gone, with only the goal of regaining custody of his daughter after the death of his wife. A thinly veiled take on Fitzgerald's own troubled relations with daughter Scottie after wife Zelda's madness, it's at once a suspenseful, moving, and lyrical story. All his powers are at work here, as if he knew this was his last shot at literary immortality, and he was just about right.

The Book of Revelations in the New Testament is the most likely source from which F. Scott Fitzgerald draws his "Babylon Revisited". In Revelations, Babylon the Great (also an ancient Near Eastern city of materialism and sexual excess) is the `mother of whores' and the source of all evil in the Roman Empire. She is said to have been defeated by God and judged for her excessive sin. Upon her destruction, the saints rejoice while the merchants and hedonistic pleasure seekers morn. Symbolism abounds in this revision of the timeless tale and the choice of Fitzgerald's title could not be more appropriate.

Charlie himself is the regeneration of Babylon. During the economic boom of the 20's, Charlie and his wife lived life to its fullest and most shallow degree. They partied until sunup. They squandered wealth. We even get the impression that there was a significant amount of infidelity existing on both sides. As with Babylon, Charlie is punished: The stock market crash in 1929 liberates him of a fortune, "his child [is] taken from his control, [and] his wife escaped to a grave in Vermont."

As with Babylon, Charlie's fall had its rejoicers and mourners. Marion, his wife's bereaved sister, saw Charlie's fall as an opportunity to gain control of his child, and with sincere intentions rid her family of the sinner. Though she doesn't expressly rejoice in her brother-in-laws demise, she does blame him for her sister's death and understands why his life has turned out askew. Duncan and Lorraine, on the other hand, mourned the loss of their sinister partner in indulgence.

This story is complete with all of the historic reference and symbolism that has come to define F. Scott Fitzgerald. What a fantastic, unbelievably creative writer. It's amazing how timeless his writings are, and "Babylon Revisited" is the perfect example of that fact. It really makes you think about your own life.

The king of the 1920's Lit World wrote short stories for big money in Scribner's Magazine, Collier's, Esquire, and Saturday Evening Post. His first novel made him famous, This Side of Paradise, but his subsequent novels including The Great Gatsby sold meagerly. Zelda and Scott went through dough like drunken sailors, so Scott wrote short stories for a quick buck. This group of stories is among his best and though some or all were written commercially, Scott's talent was so huge that they rival his chief competitor's: Hemingway, Parker, Anderson, and Larder in charm and precision.

Above all, Fitzgerald is charming. The drunken rich boys of May Day are close to the authors experience and poignantly revealing. Scott was the son of a failed businessman. His mother's family was well to do and Scott associated with rich beauties that seemed always just beyond a snow covered golf course as in Winter Dreams. His experience with his future wife, Zelda Sear, an Alabama debutante is cloaked in fantasy in Ice Palace. Surely newlyweds are surprised to find they have married strangers. In that there is no secret, but Fitzgerald gives his bride a hysterical nightmare in a St Paul carnival ice maze. The reader loves Sally Carrol and is genuinely caught up in her dilemma of Minnesota in-laws and a suddenly stern husband.

Fitzgerald was a dreamer and The Diamond As Big As the Ritz is a parable about a family so rich, and so self-centered in their luxuries, they murder their guests less the secret of the their wealth be known. In an era where a million dollars could buy a country, Fitzgerald's fascination with success and the rich permeates his work.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of our greatest writers. He is best known today for his many wonderful novels, especially The Great Gatsby. As time has passed, his marvelous magazine stories have faded from sight . . . even though those were more widely read than his novels when they were written.

In Babylon Revisited: And Other Stories you will deepen your understanding of the novels . . . and of their author in these often semi-autobiographical tales. The best stories have as much impact as any of the novels in a spare exposition that adds to their power.

Each story deals with the same general theme: We live on hope which is based on illusions about reality. When faced with reality, we happily escape into new hopes based on different illusions. We are sort of like Peter Pan: We don't want to grow up.

The theme comes across with startling persuasiveness as Fitzgerald unpeels the many forms of hopeful illusions that will seem familiar to every reader.

The stories build chronologically across the backdrop of the United States after World War I in the 20's and 30's. That shift in authorship times also inadvertently adds the drama of seeing how the psychology of the young and educated changed as American went from mindless boom to seemingly unending bust.

Fitzgerald has a rich imagination to makes his world open up for readers so that you can feel both the physical sensations and the emotions of the characters . . . and become the characters while you are reading.

The stories themselves have that delightful quality of exaggeration that makes his points indelible.

The Ice Palace explores a Southern beauty's pursuit of an advantageous marriage in the frozen tundra of Minnesota in winter. May Day recounts the pursuit of pleasure and accomplishment by those of various social classes and beliefs. The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is a wild tale of a mythical place and the consequences of unlimited wealth. Winter Dreams deals with the painful consequences of acting on the illusions of romantic love. Absolution is an amazing story about how we can carelessly end up being untrue to God and ourselves. The Rich Boy considers how being rich and powerful can get in the way of being close to others. The Freshest Boy looks at being an awkward teenage boy and how he came to make peace with the world. Babylon Revisited shows how our mistakes can come home to roost after we believe we are invulnerable. Crazy Sunday is an astonishing look at the psychology of how we connect to one another through others. The Long Way Out is about a woman who suffers from a mental collapse and is now ready to return to her husband . . . when fate steps in.

My favorite stories in the book are May Day, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, The Freshest Boy, Babylon Revisited and Crazy Sunday.

If you haven't read these stories before, you have a great treat ahead of you. If you can find a copy of George Guidall's narration for Recorded Books, your pleasure will be even greater.

This is a very sensitively written and complex story about two people - written in stellar prose.

This Dover edition - titled The Beast in the Jungle and Other Stories - provides three short stories that are among the finest of their genre, although defining the genre itself is not without difficulty. Only The Jolly Corner might be classed a ghost story. These superb studies of obsession might be best described as nuanced, subtle, and intellectually haunting, and are among the best short works of Henry James.

The Alter of the Dead (1895): George Stransom "had perhaps not more losses than most men, but he counted his losses more: he hadn't seen death more closely, but had in a manner felt it more deeply."

The Beast in the Jungle (1903): John Marcher had from his earliest time, deep within him, "the sense of being kept for something rare and strange, possibly prodigious and terrible, that was sooner or later to happen" and he had in his bones the foreboding and conviction that it might overwhelm him. Despite its suspense and deep sense of despair, this classic tale has been described as sluggish and overly ornate. Be that as it may, this foreboding tale is memorable.

The Jolly Corner (1908): Returning after decades in Europe to his vacant, empty home in New York, Spencer Brydon would in the gathering dusk "wander and wait, linger and listen, feel his fine attention, never in his life so fine, on the pulse of the great vague place: he preferred the lampless hour and only wished he might have prolonged each day the deep crepuscular spell."

I have read this collection on three, perhaps four occasions. The works of Henry James, like that of William Faulkner, continue to improve with subsequent readings, undoubtedly the mark of great literature. For the reader unfamiliar with the writings of Henry James, this little collection would be an excellent introduction to his challenging prose. I highly recommend this Dover edition.

In this basically two person novella, John Marcher, believes that something, not necessarily wonderful, maybe even terrible-but something-would eventually spring on him unawares, like a beast in the jungle, and ultimately determine his fate. May Bartram, his friend throughout these many years, agrees to wait with Marcher to observe his destiny.

_The Beast in the Jungle_, in its quiet, psychologically incisive, and intimate way, is the tragedy of a man who is too passive, too timid, too self-absorbed and self-centered to attempt even in the slightest manner to take life in his own hands to shape his future. Marcher is certain that May Bartram can provide him with all the answers to the impending great event, but he only succeeds in slowly draining the life from her. May Bartram, patient and wise, is the true hero of the piece. It is only at the end that the truth is revealed to Marcher. The jungle finally becomes empty, and poor pitiful, ineffectual John Marcher never even witnessed it.

I have never read Henry James before because I have always been told that he is not worth reading. My own teachers have told me that, but they obviously didn't read like I do because I found this story nothing but delightful. Henry James faintly resembles the writing of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. I see the resemblance in James' use of detail, not only in physical descriptions but also in the portrayals of capturing what is happening in the minds of his characters. This can be tedious if a reader is looking for plot, but my own conviction is that good fiction is driven by character, and anything that happens within a plot happens consequently to how characters act and/or think. "The Beast in the Jungle" revolves around only two characters and how their relationship and convictions affect each other's lives. The beauty in this story is the reality within it-a realization of time and how and what it should be spent on. James focuses on human relationships and shows the flaws that can occur within those relationships. John Marcher's selfishness, for instance, keeps him at a distance from May Bartram and her love for him: "Marcher had been visited by one of his occasional warnings against egotism. He had kept up, he felt . . . his consciousness of the importance of not being selfish". This selfishness, which Marcher believes he suppresses fairly well, is what turns out to be part of the Beast he is seeking; the selfishness is what keeps him from loving Mary Bartram simply because he wants her only for what she can do for him: ". . . he had never felt before, the growth of a dread of losing her by some catastrophe . . . that yet wouldn't at all be the catastrophe: partly because she had almost of a sudden begun to strike him as more useful to him than ever yet". I enjoyed "The Beast in the Jungle" so much because it took me into the mind of a person who grows throughout the story and learns something that perhaps every human being needs to learn throughout the course of his/her life. I don't find Henry James tiresome or dull at all; in fact, to myself of course, his writing is quite the contrary. I look forward to reading more of him.

Henry James' Beast in the Jungle is surely not for everyone, there is little action in the novella (I suppose that is the point actually) and the title could give readers the wrong idea. John Marcher, the protagonist, is re-aquainted with May Bartram, a woman he knew ten years earlier, who remembers his odd secret- Marcher is seized with the belief that his life is to be defined by some catastrophic or spectacular event, lying in wait for him like a "beast in the jungle."

May decides to take a flat nearby in London, and to spend her days with Marcher curiously awaiting what fate has in stall for John. Of course Marcher is a self-centered egoist, believing that he is precluded from marrying so that he does not subject his wife to his "spectacular fate". So he takes May to the theatre and invites her to an occasional dinner, while not allowing her to really get close to him for her own sake. As he sits idly by and allows the best years of his life to pass, he takes May down as well, until the denouement wherein he learns that the great misfortune of his life was to throw it away, and to ignore the love of a good woman, based upon his preposterous sense of foreboding.

James' language can be a bit stilted at times, and some of the dialogue may strike modern readers as out-dated. However James was a master of the novella format, and with The Beast in the Jungle he has written an engrossing psychological drama, which left me speechless at the very end. Pick up a collection that also includes The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller if you haven't already read them, they are accessible (more so than some of James' full length novels) and great examples of the format's potential.

This book is one of my all time favorites! I've read it to pre-schoolers on up and it's just perfect for how to act at a resteraunt and to incorporate those actions at home or at a family members house. it's basic manners with a rhyming twist! kids love it!

This charming book is a great tool to use when trying to teach manners to young children. It's told in rhyme and explains why people (children) should say please and thank you. The illustrations that accompany the text are fun and engaging for youngsters. The middle of the book even has a section that explains, in a very simple way, the proper set up of silverware and what each utensil should be used for, such as the far left fork for salads. The end of the book has a set of 10 Rules children should follow when eating out. My sister read this book to the children she works with at preschool and they loved it. Some of the kids even started using the dinner set illustrations when they played house.

He loves looking at the pictures and laughing. We have not had it long enough to see if it will help him.
ETA: He is a joker- and mimics the things to do wrong just to be funny- fortunately mostly just at home. He likes to put his napkin on his head the most.

I needed to buy this book from Amazon because there were none in the stores and I wanted to give them as a gift. My daughter,Cheryl Bernstein did the illustrations for the book. I also thought it was a cute story.

This is a great book for parents wanting to teach their kids manners before going out to eat. If only all kids behaved this well!

This collection of stories is a minor masterpiece. As other Amazon reviewers have pointed out Schwartz is not much attended to these days, not much read. At one time he seemed to be the great promise of American writing. The sad tale of how he lost it and died young is now a part of his legend. In these stories he shows originality and invention. The unforgettable movie scene in ' In Dreams Begin Responsibilities' where the child watching the courtship of his parents, hearing his father propose yells out at the screen ' Don't do it. Don't do it' is funny and deeply sad at once. Schwarz's Brooklyn world was one in which family frustrations and tensions seem to put reality itself on edge. It is Schwartz after all who is really responsible for the famous ' Paranoids too have real enemies'. Whether the persecutor was himself or not , they got him young. Before this he wrote these wonderful stories which hopefully will have a larger place in the American canon in the years to come.

The best of the stories in here are brilliant. The dialogue is great, as well as the reflective passages. That a mediocre short story writer like Raymond Carver is lauded, while Schwartz is relatively obscure, shows that the cream does NOT rise to the top. I've read passages of these stories a number of times. I can't praise them highly enough.

Five of the stories here are flat-out masterpieces ("In Dreams;" "The World is a Wedding;" "New Year's Eve;" "The Commencement Address;" and "The Track Meet"), while the other 3 are extremely well done, if not as wholly satisfying. This collection should be required reading in every contemporary lit. class. It's got everything: all the themes of struggle, frustration and defeat, responsibility, ambition, all the thoughts that men have thought in every age, and captures its era so perfectly and completely I am in awe. Even though the stories are, in some ways similar (especially "In Dreams," "The Commencement Address," and "The Track Meet"), they are utterly original, beautiful, hallucinatory, profound, funny and heartbreaking. Schwartz -- that great voice speaking out against the crowd -- deserves to be heard at last.

I've never had this experience before, or since. It is autumn of 1964. I am a college freshman, sitting on my bed reading the story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities." My roommate and a few other dorm mates walk into the room and call my name, but I don't hear them, so lost am I in the story. Finally, someone nudges my arm. I look up--and the story, which had been unrolling before my eyes, is gone! I'm back in my college dorm room, no longer in the movie theater in the story. I had not even been aware that I was reading--I was IN the story, I was there, experiencing it, not just reading it--and for a few moments, I didn't know what had happened or where I was. Repeated readings never quite duplicated that first experience, but the story remains very powerful, very moving, very involving.

This collection of stories is graced by two introductions and lives up to every superlative. Irving Howe and biographer James Atlas note for the reader Delmore Schwartz's unfailing ear for the idiom of his parents' generation. Each of the stories is a masterpiece and competes, in terms of quality, with the Schwartz poetry. Having read James Atlas's biography of Delmore Schwartz this reader thinks of tragic waste and pain when thinking of Schwartz. And yet, and yet, when one considers the brilliance of these stories, the fact that his mere existence inspired the wonderful novel HUMBOLDT'S GIFT by Saul Bellow, and that he evoked intense loyality from his students the picture shifts to a life of immense achievement not disproportionate to his evident gift. This New Directions Paperback has a compelling photograph on the cover.

This book covered most every aspect of religion and the Reformation. Beginning with the wonderful opening chapter that explains the environment of the current era and ending with the equally as powerful conclusion that ties the whole book together. You are exposed to astrologists, witches, cunning men, sorcerers and realize how they each worked against, and with, the Church. We see how the rising of Church of England ebolished the idea of "magic" and miricals, an important factor in the decline of Catholocism. I highly reccomend this as an advanced reader to anyone interested in how the "pagen" influence and Church power intermingaled in an age when community was giving way to individulism. Brilliant.

Keith Thomas is one of the most recognized early modern historians. And this is his seminal work. It is universally noted as one of the great early modern history books. And this is not without excellent reason.
By examining two of the most unique and pertinent topics of early modern England (religion and magic), Thomas is able to give a dynamic account of an oftentimes overlooked period of Western civilization and thoroughly examine the social mentalities and perceptions behind witchcraft/magic/prophecy/etc. With his characteristic grasp of communication, Thomas brings in an plethora of primary sources giving the book an original flavor and an almost 'magical'(forgive me) appeal.
The book is both a serious work of scholarship and an accessible read for those not familiar with social science rhetoric. It has become a vital part of my own graduate research and an enjoyable doorway into the world of early modern society.
The only reason, it has not received five stars in my review is the weakness of the final chapter. The book does cover three hundred years of belief, in a period when reason and belief began their modern schism away from each other, and perhaps this has something to do with the unconclusive conclusion with which Thomas leaves the reader.

Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic was the first of my books for summer reading, and I doubt that any novel that I choose will be half as entertaining or any text as informative. By the conclusion I felt that I was completing an odessey throughout the early modern era with a sympathy and understanding of a world far different then ours in some respects, yet, as Thomas succinctly points out in the conclusion, profoundly similar. No other history book has granted me a deeper sense of understanding about human drives for stability and for explaination in all things. This is a book that grants insight and understanding far beyond its proclaimed subject matter, with positive and sweeping consequences for the objective thinker.

I first read this book as a history graduate student many years ago, and it still remains one of my favorite books of all time. Thomas set himself a daunting task--ascertaining the effect the change in religion from Catholicism with its beliefs in miracles, saints, transubstantiation to Protestantism with its adversion to miraculous beliefs had on the popular imagination.

Thomas tapped little used sources, the Church court records which included trials for witchcraft or magic to see if he could trace a decline in belief in magic. Thomas concluded that magical belief did decline from the 15th-17th centuries. In my opinion, he proved his case.

Anyone who has done historical research will stand in awe of Thomas' command of sources and his ability to synthesize. Anyone who is more than a little fed up with ahistorical screeds on witchcraft prosecutions a la Margaret Murray, will applaud Thomas's reasoned and credible explaination of the reasons behind witchcraft prosecutions. Basically, witchcraft prosecution in 16th century England filled the same function as it does in contemporary Africa--an attempt to control the uncontrollable.

Other people have praised the contents of this book, as well they should. So allow me to add something that might sway prospective readers.

I read this book at the conclusion of a year-long tutorial on this period of English history. Having focused on economic, social, military, diplomatic and religious histories of the time, I could not have been better prepared to read this book. It was, hands, down, the most perfect book I could have picked up after all that.

However, I realize that my circumstances will likely differ from others. Some people won't dive into this book after having waded through multiple texts on the centuries in question. This book shouldn't be appealing to academics or (in my case) failed academics alone. So, to those curious who haven't specialized in this field or even had the happy luck to muck about in it, like I did, I will say two things.

One, I enthusiastically recommended this book to several college buddies, none of whom were history students. While they had some questions that needed a glance at an encyclopedia, all thoroughly enjoyed it. Based on their responses, I'd say anyone with any background or interest in/familiarity with anthropology, religion or early English literature will enjoy this book.

Two, I read this book right before meeting my stepfather-in-law, a Presbyterian minister, for the first time. And just based on asking him questions and bringing up the subject matter provided us with hours of fascinating conversation. If you know anyone well-schooled in religion who enjoys talking about its history (and is not offended by the suggestion that sometimes religion can err), this book will be great conversation fodder and a delightful present.

That being said, reading this book was a wonderful experience. It combined the rigors of excellent scholarship with the pleasures of dryly witty writing and engrossing primary-source material. (I cannot say enough about this. It's a misfortune of the rigors of historical research that many of the people with the stamina to endure it don't seem to possess a similar aptitude for writing. Thomas may not be as pithy and light as A.J.P. Taylor, but his prose is far above historical-text average, and what he lacks as a stylist is more than made up for by the funny, bizarre and vivid primary-source passages he quotes.)

Ten years ago, this book might have been more difficult for non-historians, non-theologians and non-anthropologists to pick up and just read for fun. Now, with Wikipedia and countless other online tools, references to English history that might otherwise have seemed cryptic or arcane are easily searched and can only add to the full experience of enjoying Mr. Thomas' work. It might feel like work for a little while, to constantly refer to an online encyclopedia to clarify points about Charles I or Oliver Cromwell, but that will pass. Don't be afraid to jump in! It's a challenging text at times, but it is well worth the effort.

Success Stories is an prime example of what Banks does best--tell the stories of people surviving in the wilderness of exurban northern New England. His portrayals are accurate and the conflicts are real.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on Trailer Park.

This is a collection of moving and deeply thought provocing stories. The semi-autobiographical tone of the 6 of the stories show how even the minutest bits of success can elevate a person to great things. I highly recommend this and other Banks' novels. He has a way of making you think which isn't common among many writers today

A book about contradiction and moral mistakes, Success Stories did something for me that literature sometimes can: it helped me understand myself and my relationships with the people I love a little more usefully.

Several of the stories follow the fortunes of Earl Painter and his broken family with a distinctness and sympathetic humanity that forgives these sad characters who do the best they can with what they have and who they are, but does not blind itself or romanticize the truths of their lives. The other stories read like morality fables, reminding us that our own good and evil, our own conscious and unconscious intentions can be subverted and pushed down paths we don't have the foresight to predict when they leave us and go into the world.

A deeply moving and satisfying book.

Russell Banks doesn't write about people per se; he write about what they do and leaves you to determine why they do it. Reading his prose is sort of like touring the human psyche by the light of a sputtering sparkler. Banks will never cheat or dupe you, and that's what makes his subjects and their lives so wonderfully human.

The Sarah Cole story is worth the price of the book, and The Fish is an amazingly incisive parable about righteousness and the tragedy of good intentions.

A book about contradiction and moral mistakes, Success Stories did something for me that literature sometimes can: it helped me understand myself and my relationships with the people I love a little more usefully.

Several of the stories follow the fortunes of Earl Painter and his broken family with a distinctness and sympathetic humanity that forgives these sad characters who do the best they can with what they have and who they are, but does not blind itself or romanticize the truths of their lives. The other stories read like morality fables, reminding us that our own good and evil, our own conscious and unconscious intentions can be subverted and pushed down paths we don't have the foresight to predict when they leave us and go into the world.

A deeply moving and satisfying book.

As an immigrant to Australia I used to get baffled by the some of the social expectations that I never learnt or witnessed while growing up in India. If a non Westerner behaves differently in a social setting, Westerners consider it rudeness rather than ignorance. This book covers most of the aspects of Western style etiquettes. And it is covered in such a simple way that within a week I felt quite comfortable in most social settings. I think that any person who is new to Western culture should read this book.

Mr. Purdy has done the impossible; he's made etiquette something that's not just for the social elite or something from an earlier century like bustles and dowries. In his book he writes that being kind and polite is for everyone in every age. It makes the world a nicer place to live. And why wouldn't we want that?

Well done, Social Grace, I can't wait to see what your next project will be.

Over the past couple of years, I've become a big fan of the Social Grace etiquette advice column. It offers a refreshing outlook on etiquette and manners. So I was really looking forward to the first Social Grace etiquette book . . . and it was definitely worth the wait. This book is funny and entertaining, but it also has some fantastic advice on how to live a courteous, dignified life. I would recommend Urban Etiquette to anyone who has ever had to ride a subway, use a public laundromat, eat in a restaurant, do anything in a city environment, etc. -- and was not sure how to behave. This book will be extremely helpful.

Finally, a book that takes the rather murky world of "proper" manners and gives it a sensible, modern spin. This book is a must for anyone even remotely interested in interacting with their fellow man with dignity and grace. The layout makes for an interesting and entertaining read, while also serving as a handy reference tool for when you need a few quick tips on throwing a right proper cocktail party. This is just a great little book, and would make a wonderful gift. It does beg the question though, who on earth would forcibly remove a person's Argyle socks from their sock drawer? For shame.

I have really enjoyed reading Urban Etiquette, not only for my personal use, but to inform my friends of public etiquette. I recently moved to SF and I loved the section on bus (public transportation) etiquette. I enjoyed the way the book polished the etiquette I had learned as a child from my parents, but told it in a new "trendier" fashion.
I would recommend this book to anyone and I have alreayd bought two more for house warming gifts. You will get a chuckle from the book and it will open your eyes what not to do in public.

I am learning German for sometime now and I first read this book back a few years ago. I don't find this book too difficult. Though I don't understand all the vocabulary, I don't get bored or stop trying. The story just drags you on and you really want to see what happens next. The story is in a comedy mood (like other books of Erich Kaestner). Everything goes wrong in the funniest way and yet everybody seems to be happy or yielding to the situation they end up being. The ending is also excellent (it actually goes wrong in the best way!) and I think Erich made a very good artistic effort to make the story look as coherent as it could get.

In general I think the book is a great story (apart from teaching you German), and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"Die Drei Männer Im Schnee" is a simple morality tale. A bored rich man, full of his own self-righteousness, is determined to expose the disgraceful snobbishness of wealthy people towards more humble folk. He arranges to "win" a vacation at a prestigious hotel in the Swiss alps under an alias, arriving dressed in outrageous second-hand clothing.

Things don't work out quite as he'd planned and he leaves with a deeper understanding of society - and a new son-in-law.

Erich Kästner is best known for his children's books. He brings to this story the same unadorned, but elegant, German that has made him so popular since "Emil und die Detektive" was published in 1929. Even his themes remain relevant. The real "winner" in "Drei Männer im Schnee" is a polite young college graduate, who has been out of work since being laid off a year earlier. The story could as easily have been written in 2004 as 1934.

This book is the perfect choice for an intermediate German student. It has many new vocabulary words, and gets the reader familiar with the often overlooked genitive tense for verbs. This book has humor, romance, intruige, and is full of surprises. The likeable characters of Kesselhuth, Tobler, and the rest will truly leave a smile on your face. I first read this book in high school, but now even in college, I enjoy reading it on a rainy day. Again, a great book with a great story.

As a child of the Sixties the stories related in Time It Was are the stories of my youth. The individual reflections of so many historical events rekindled my own memories of that turbulent and important time. All of us who came of age during that decade had our physics forever impregnated by our exposure to what surely was a revolution of change in our society. As I read the book my mind was flooded with memories of those formative years in my life. As I reflect on those experiences and those times I can see how significantly my life was shaped by the music, lifestyle and general mood of my generation. Today, almost forty years after the fact, I still exhibit personality traits acquired during the Sixties. Obviously I have a more mature approach to situations now but I still have a deep, unchanged distrust of the "establishment" that sometimes rises to the surface. I strongly recommend Time It Was to any member of the younger generation interested in learning about their parents or grandparent's formulative years. I promise it will stir the emotions in all who shared those days and remind you of how important to us those days were.

Having been born after the Sixties, my interpretations of the period were generally about sex, drugs & rock 'n roll, political assassinations and the unpopular war in Vietnam. All familiar topics, blended into a worn cliched pattern by the media. Like a tie-dye shirt you bought at Wal-Mart, rather than from a real hippie at a Grateful Dead show.

This book covers the expected flash-point moments from the period, as well as many other corners of the social and political landscape. Best of all, it was not written by a staff of historians, churning out textbook after textbook. These are real stories by real people who lived in that period. Not all of them survived it. A few are minor celebrities because of their involvement in key events. Many are regular folks who made big decisions at a young age, perhaps not realizing at the time the net effect of their generation on the world. All are storytellers with a personal tale to tell.

You don't have to be a hippie to enjoy and learn from this book.

This book captures both the "spirit" and the "substance" of the 1960's. The various contributors present a multi-level photograph of an extremely turbulent and explosive time in our country's history. The book provides both "satellite landscapes" and "portrait close-ups". The balanced writing and panoply of viewpoints makes this work a "history handbook" while other published works about the 1960's seem to dissolve into gray and beige.

Even the cover art reflects the balanced approach of the book: Ms. Liberty's entire appearance reflects the palate of cultural and political views that "marked" the decade.

In reading the personal reflections of individuals who lived through this period in American History, I felt a very strong connection:

a. I wrote my college senior thesis on the May 1968 student revolts at Columbia University and the Sorbonne;
b. Having been born in 1955, I was too young to meaningfully participate in any of the events described but old enough to bear witness;

I unequivocally and enthusiastically recommend this book.