Languages Books

What a delicious book! From the juicy pomegranate art on the cover to the final writing prompt, this book is a feast for women writers. Structured around the growing cycle--seeds, roots, trunk, branches, leaves, buds, flowers, fruit, and seeds again--each section begins and ends with a meditation centered on a particular fruit that will provoke a new level of sensual writing for participants. As much a celebration of life in the body as it is a writing guide, it offers a fresh and succulent approach to what can become a rote exercise for those who journal a great deal.

Gayle Brandeis is an award-winning author and poet with a gift for choosing poems and quotes which insist on a response from the reader. When I pick up this book and thumb through it, I HAVE to write! If the poems don't get you, then her questions or examples from her own life will. For instance, this poem by Marge Piercy, followed by Brandeis' prompts:


In her bottled up is a woman peppery as curry,
a yam of a woman of butter and brass,
compounded of acid and sweet like a pineapple,
like a hand grenade set to explode,
like goldenrod ready to bloom.

What woman is bottled up inside of you? What woman is ready to explode or bloom under your skin? Write from the voice of the woman who simmers inside you, the woman who hasn't been fully born, fully released yet. What does this woman want to tell you? How can you help her find her way into the world?"

Have you grabbed a pen and notebook yet? This distinctive, unique approach to journal writing is bound to jolt you out of your complacency and drudgery--and you will never look at fruit the same way again! Let Gayle have the last words, from the final paragraph of her juicy book: "What seedlings are sprouting inside you? Let them grow; continue to nourish them as they push their way into the light. Keep listening to your own inner impulses. Let yourself be witness to your own gorgeous unfolding."

Indeed.

by Carolyn Blankenship
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Unlike many writing books that offer random topics and one-liners to inspire your creativity, Fruitflesh takes your mind into your own life, mind and body from the perspective of a fruit -- organic, raw, growing, changing. On days when I think there is nothing to write about, I open Fruitflesh. If I don't find something new in myself to explore, I at least find a new way of seeing the writing process and how my life is very much connected with it. Fruitflesh sits on my writing desk, constantly waiting to be thumbed through and explored.

Collected poems from diverse writers celebrate deep connections between body and earth. The common thread here is imagery concerning fruit, in all of its seasons. With suggestions and writing prompts, and meditations on the nature of imagination and growth, this volume is a welcome companion to the writer's life. Seeds of Inspiration for anyone, not only female, who wants to explore connections to earth's cycles and elements. Recommended as a resource for teachers at all grade levels (adapt examples to your student's level).

I bought this book because I had read some great reviews about it on another web site. Truth be told, I am not even much of a writer - I am a mixed-media artist and visual journaler. The book sat on my bookshelf for a month and a half, waiting it's turn in my reading queue. I started to read this book last night and could hardly put it down. I was hooked by the introduction alone! I rarely can finish an introduction much less will I pull out a highlighter to mark drops of wisdom found in the beginning pages. The language is engaging, poetic and very visual - as a visual artist this is probably a huge part of the appeal to me. If you are a writer, an artist or a woman - I really recommend that you put out the $16 for this book - it is worth every penny and more!

I was given this book as a gift several months ago - and it's languished on my Bookshelf of the Unread. I picked it up 2 days ago, read it, and figuratively ate it up. Very much a woman writer's book, Fruitflesh uses the growing cycles of flowers and fruits as metaphors for the structure of writing, a unique approach that will appeal to those of us who struggle with the writing muse each and every day. As in other books for writers, yes, there are writing exercises, and yes, there is advice, but here's the difference: Brandeis offers lush and bountiful suggestions for medications that will help bring to fruition the prose we KNOW we have within us. This book is designed to help us find the true sources of our creativity
It's a feast, and halfway through Fruitflesh, you can almost feel the juice of a peach running down your chin.
Excellent. It's easy to see that the author is also a poet.

With today's rising rates of obesity, good fitness ethics have to be instilled at a young age. "Fun, Fitness, and Skills: The Powerful Original Games Approach" is a manual for parents and teachers who want to ensure that children get the exercise they need, and that will teach them valuable life skills as well. The games vary far and wide, but all are sure to appeal to youngsters, making "Fun Fitness, and Skills" especially recommendation to gym teachers and other recreation professionals in charge of children ages 5-10.

I love this book especially for the younger age groups. It really helped me to see how you should set up games and what is important to include in all lessons. Great job Mr. Weiss!!!!

Excellent book for ANY grade level. The games can be adapted to suit the needs of your children. Howie Weiss has put this book together nicely. All of the games are easy to follow and can be adapted to suit the needs of your children, space and equipment.

It is great when you are creating a lesson plan because all of the games and activities are based on the NASPE's National Standards. I teach High School and my kids at that age STILL love all of the activities that I have done so far.

This book is definitely a must have!

If you are in need of the physical educator's Bible ,then this book is a must not only for younger teachers , but also for (us) veterans who need to be re-tooled.Howie's book hits the mark of excellence. It is apparent from the very beginning that his book has the ability to change the way physical education is preceived.
Howie's wealth of experience is noticeable on each page. He leaves so many variations and alternatives that can be used in all areas of education. This is not only a " How to Book ", it is a why, and a I wish I had this twenty years ago.I call this book a page turner because I couldn't wait to see what Howie would come up with next . He didn't dissapoint , in fact , this book gave me the energy to continue my quest to become even more active beyond retirement . Howie, thanks again for giving us a different view of the way to teach and to reach out to make a difference. Great job ! and will there be a sequel?
Gerry Cernicky

Mr. Weiss' book is a must have for every Physical Educator who is looking for new games to utilize in their physical education classes. The games and activities in the book can be easily implemented, and most require little or no equipment. In addition, these activities all can lead to meeting NASPE and state standards for Physical Education. If you are committed to providing a quality phyiscal education program for your students, this book is a must have for your library of resources!

I have to say, this book is awesome. It taught me how to build models and understand why I am doing what I am doing. I use it all the time and hopefully he will release a new version for us folks who will outgrow this one. Covers all bases and it's worth 2x what I paid for it...

this is very good because it teaches step by step and it makes sense too.

The book is a very clear, step-by-step of all the processes involved in making a game character leading up to the animation. The animation is covered but not in as much detail. Everything else is though, including the awesome rigging machine which comes with the book.

Its refreshing to see that someone wasnt limited by a publisher to keep the book size down, and he obviously was able to take his time really illusrating every step.

Its a great book.

This is my first time to write this kind of review, therefore, I don't know how to do a good one. But what I can say for this book is it is easy to follow and the method of modeling that I have learned from it is very useful. If you can follow the tutorials patiently, you can gradually build a very good foundation of your modeling skill. ^-^.. I am looking forward for the next edition.

1)This book highlights some important issues in modeling & rigging that no other books bother to emphasis.

2)The accompanying CD contains very insightful scripts (that acutally works) - goodies other books only PRETEND to give.

3)It guides beginners and ease them through relatively advanced topics in character animation.

4)If you really need to achieve something in a hurry in Maya. Yes, this is the book to get.

For a book to be called game development this book sure is lacking on the game side of things.You create one big game at the end,but other than that there is really nothing else in there I would consider a game.That's why the book is getting 4 stars not 5.With that out of the way this book is very well written and the author explains things in great detail. There are alot of good nuggets of coding techniques in this book.

I had used Flash 4 for some time. In Flash 4, if you wanted to do a certain command, like go to a different scene you went to the point and click menu and selected that.But I felt that was rather lacking in what you could do, so I wanted to get the latest and greatest version of Flash. I went out and bought it, (MX 2004) and I soon found out, that there really wasn't a point and click menu, and you needed at least some knowledge in ActionScript. I looked around, and found this book. And I am glad I did. The book is exellent. It's really easy to follow, between the detailed explantions and the demo's on the cd. I found it really easy to understand everything, and it gives you a great way to start programming.

It comes with a demo of Flash MX 2004, but I highly recommend buying it (I got it at an educational discount). Both MX and this book were well worth the money.

There are few author's that take the beginner's (dummy) route to teaching programming to the masses and this book shines brightly in that department. From start to finish, it seems that the author knows what I want to do and shows me thoroughly how to do it properly with different ways to tackle it. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to take FLASH MX to sky high heights and not just leave this wonderful program to websites.

This is an enthusiastic book to read because once you open it and see how easy it is to follow you'll be excited to continue to read, and learn how to use flash mx. The author shows excellence in communicating the information to his readers. I am not fimilar with programming, but interested in programming and i was able to gain a lot of information that I was able to apply(which is the most important concept of the book). I definitely recommend this book to those who may want to enhance their knowledge or one who is just curious of the field.

I'm a business man looking for a programming book to spice up my computer knowledge & some fun, something different and exciting, I came across this book, in Barns & Noble, sitting on the shelve in the actionscript section. The book is very easy to understan, comes packed with not only that but the CD comes packed with cool samples and games and comes with Flash MX 2004!!! Defenietly I recommend it.

Who doesn't like Cliff Notes? We used them to help our kids do several projects for Language Arts class. Teachers assigned a lot of projects and they were difficult...this helped a great deal for different ideas and angles on the story.

This is a book for all ages. Although the book is at a low reading level, it has a universal concept of difference and the effect on the world today, that is better used even as a high school student or adult. The Giver is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read,and it has educated me on how differences are so important, although cliche, this brings a new meaning to conformity and a world without differences. The first word that comes to mind about this book is beauty, although in this case, that comes to me with the unsettling feeling of this perhaps a truth of the future.

I have always wondered what this book was about, and I finally found the time to read it for a LA project. The author used a lot of imagination and was very creative when she formed the perfect world that Jonas lived in. This book has some good morals behind it, but I think it is rather dull and could use more suspense. I was very disappointed with the shortness of the book and the ending. Even though I do enjoy making up endings on my own, Lois Lowry has stopped the book right at the climax. I believe that she should have elaborated and given more information that would help bring the story to a wonderful ending. Over all this book is a great book to read for pleasure.

I like the book it is different, because of the way she uses the different world how they can't make different choices. I thought that she used new words to express the feelings about Jonas and The Giver. I also thought that she used the advantage of them not having choices, because it made them realised that "Elswhere" really exixted.
I didn't like the ending it was making me hang of the edge of my seat. It made me think about the ending and how Jonas got to elsewhere. She needs more of the ending or the sequel to the book. I do agree about the way she described about not having a sequal though.

My teacher read this book to us in English class for a unit. I really liked this book because it makes you think or imagine what could have happened to Jonas and Gabe. I know in my class when we finished the book, my teacher asked us what we thought happened at the end, so we all gave our ideas. Some kids said that he got a job or got married or died. Anything could have happened to them. Thats why I liked this book.

Do you remember Golden Books as a child. Do you still read them to your children? Then you won't want to miss this fascinating history.

If the names Poky Little Puppy, Tawny Scrawny Lion and Tootle bring a smile to your face, than this book might just be for you. Golden Legacy is extensively illustrated with a detailed history of the writers, artists and publishers of the Golden Book series. As a Disney fan, I especially appreciated the piece on Mary Blair's Golden Book work. I would have given this book 3-4 stars if I were just interested in the illustrations, but it is definitely a 5 star book because of the extensive history of the books.

I ordered this book because I worked for the company for 5 years and so I had a special interest in the subject. Honestly, I can't imagine why anyone else would have a burning interest in the subject. Too bad I wasn't able to read the book before I went to work for the company...I would have known who was most important there and why. In any case, I liked the book but am not sure I would recommend it.

If you grew up reading Little Golden Books, you will likely find this book very worthwhile. Along with it being an enjoyable trip down memory lane, it's full of interesting "behind the scenes" information. 2 things prevent me from giving it 5 stars: narrative is not the author's strong suit, so it's often difficult to keep track of the various people and logistics of the company, and the book ends rather abruptly. The other minor aggravation is that the captions for all the pictures on any 2 facing pages all appear under one picture. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have this volume in my library.

For the last 65 years, children have grown up on The Poky Little Puppy, The Color Kittens, The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, dozens of other Golden Books titles. To celebrate the legacy of this innovative publishing venture, Leonard S. Marcus has released the art book "Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way." The collection is not only an exquisitely beautiful celebration of our collective childhood, but the rich history of the publishing company that changed the face of literacy in America.

The first Golden Books, published in 1942, were distributed through supermarket chains at a retail price of 25 cents. At the time, paper shortages had increased the average cost of children's picture books to $2, putting them financially out of reach for many consumers. Librarians initially resisted the mass-produced books with a place to draw your name inside, but parents could purchase a title a week, children could devour the books on the go like any other toy, and television and cartoon marketers quickly seized cross-promotional opportunities. Golden Books succeeded at their goal of democratizing reading and personal book ownership for families across America.

Given that this title was published by Golden Books, the overall tone is rather celebratory, but author Marcus does not censor all detractors. He covers the controversial flat fee payments to the creative talents behind early titles. Those authors and illustrators have received no residuals from books which are still bestsellers today, 65 years later.

A 2007 copy of The Poky Little Puppy is nearly identical to the original 1942 edition that launched a publishing empire. After reading Golden Legacy, the reader may well be inspired to seek out copies of both for his or her personal library.

Para esta NAVIDAD este libro te enseña a preparar maravillosos platillos para festajar la NAVIDAD. Aún estas recetas se puedan preparar para cualquier epoca del año disfrutalas.

QUE VIENE...
Y haremos una cena tan IMPECABLE COMO LA DEL AÑO PASADO CON ESTAS RECETAS... !
ESTE RECETARIO ES UN TESORO DE FAMILIA !!!
Y TODA UNA TRADICION

con los ojos cerrados y poner el dedo en el papel ... CUALQUIER RECETA QUE HAYA SALIDO, te va a hacer agua la boca !

de Acapulco...y estas recetas, junto con las lo mejor de la cocina francesa, son las que nos han hecho famosos...

familia practicar la COCINA COMO UN ARTE, UN ARTE SIN TIEMPO NI TEMPORADA...Y eso son estas recetas

My daughter just turned 1 and I am considering buying a second copy of this book. This book has been her absolute favorite and frequently sitting by herself reading out loud to herself. She loves looking at the babies and giving them kisses and already knows where her ears, nose and mouth are. A VERY durable book, but she is trying to give it a run for its money.

My son loves the Happy Baby series! I can't say enough good things about these books. It's hard to find a book that will have my toddler sitting down for a few minutes and sitting quietly reading, but these books do it.

We bought Happy Words to help with his vocabulary, and it didn't take long to see his interest grow in wanting to know the names for things around the house. I know he enjoys the book because he pulls it out nearly every day for me to read it, even more, he's starting pointing to certain pictures asking me to repeat the names, so I know he's learning and taking it in. This book has about 13 full spread pages each with a familiar scene for a toddler- getting dressed, eating a meal, going on a walk, taking a bath, facial expressions etc. What I like most is that these scenes and words included are pertinent to a toddler, they're not just about whatever, but things a toddler needs to know the names of. Last but not least, did I mention my son loves this book??

So, if you're a mom of an infant/toddler or buying these as a gift for one, these are a SURE BET. They are also reasonably priced in my opinion. Other books in this series we own and enjoy are the Colors and ABC's. We'll definitely be buying more too as time goes on. Way to go Roger Priddy!!

I've been on a mission to find a book that meets the following criteria for my 9 month old son:
- Must be a board book (because he chews everything!)
- Mustn't be too long (32 pages maximum because we're dealing with a short attention span here)
- Mustn't be too big (so my son can easily pick up and play with the book)
- Must contain photographs of familiar objects and other babies (because all of his other books only have illustrated pictures of animals for some reason!)

"Happy Baby: Words" fit all of the above criteria perfectly and my son loves it to death. He can actually turn the pages himself and he gets so excited seeing all the baby photographs inside.

Great book!

perfect for identifying objects. bright and cheery, so babies and toddlers love to look at the pages.

Our copy has been through two children. Both of my kids love the bright and clear pictures. We are teaching my son sign language and this book is great for teaching simple words and signs! A well loved book!

I liked the book because I am a history major but some parts are hard to get through. It is a classic however and is a great stepping stone to use when reviewing ancient history

Cornelius Tacitus knows perfectly what the cardinal human characteristic is: `From time immemorial, man has had an instinctive love of power.' And, `the reward for virtue was inevitable death.'
His book is a mighty illustration of the ruthless fight for the top spot: emperor. The ambitious and the wealthy fight one another without mercy. `The truth is that revolution and strife put tremendous power into the hands of evil men.' The vanquished are brutally slain.
For Tacitus, the most important factors in the power struggle are money (`money was the sinews of civil war') and control of the military (`the lesson that an army can create an emperor'). If you could `reward` your soldiers, you could win. However, the legions were not interested in war itself only in looting, plundering, raping and enslaving. `The men wanted campaign and set battles, as the prizes here were more attractive than their normal pay.' The victims were innocent peasants, women and children.
Overall, `Italy found it hard to put up with such hordes of infantry and cavalry, and with violence, financial loss and acts of lawlessness.'

While the `Annals' contain more human touch, the `Histories' are nearly completely centered on military, diplomatic and tactical manoeuvres, followed by terrifying and merciless violence after the battles (`the fury of the soldiers').

This for mankind severe and pessimistic book is a must read for all those interested in the lessons of history and for lovers of great classical literature.

Most people don't need a review of Tacitus's work. Most people want to know if a particular translation is any good. With that in mind, I recommend this Penguin edition of Kenneth Wellesley's translation. The translation itself is highly readable, and Wellesley indicates the rare instances where he emends the Latin text in footnotes. Wellesley also uses the footnotes to help the reader keep track of some of the less prominent characters in the work, a feature which is a big help for the non-specialist. Probably the best aspect of this edition is the map section at the end. The book contains 11 maps that include maps of large areas, maps of cities, and diagrams of important battles. Wellesley also refers the reader to the appropriate map through the footnotes. This review makes it sound like the book contains a lot of footnotes, but really there are usually just one or two a page. The one minor defect of the book is that the index only contains personal names. A general index would have made this user friendly book even better. But like I said, this is a great English copy of the Histories.

Every now and then a pivotal moment in history is witnessed and recorded by a master communicator. The mid-first century of Rome was such a time and Tacitus was such a communicator. The Histories will forever be a benchmark of good history with its observations on human nature and behaviour along with their impact on history. The historian will do well to read Tacitus not just for the historical lessons but for his approach to history as a record of human activity. While observing and commenting on the human element in history, Tacitus avoids making moral judgements and remains as objective as possible in the midst of turmoil, wars, and rumors of wars. His beloved nation and people were suffering under the barbarity of fratricidal war yet he remains above the madness and records the events with passion tempered with objectivity. His example is one that has remained difficult for others to follow.

A word on this translation in particular - I found Mr. Wellesley's translation very readable and poetic. He seems to have captured the literature value of the text as well as the content. Well done.

Reading Tacitus' Annals I oft remembered Thucydides' account of the Peleponnesian wars. An important theme of the latter work was the corrupting effects of prolonged war on the morals and intellect of the Athenian people, who were ultimately degraded so much that they voted the destruction of the people of a small island just because they had chosen to remain neutral. Tacitus, on the other hand, seems to have dedicated himself in this work to examining the corrupting effects of absolutism on the Roman people after the fall of the Republic. He shows how absolute power brought out the worst traits in the character of rulers like Tiberius and Nero, who grew more and more tyrannical with every year on the throne, and how members of the illustruous Roman senate and other sections of the Roman political society turned into a horde of spineless sycophants, informers and debauches. There were still a few honourable individuals, but as Tacitus shows in an endless series of judicial and non-judicial murders, most of these paid the price of sticking to the ancient traditions of liberty and honour with their lives. Tacitus also deals at length with the relations of the Romans with the subject peo-ples. I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that in such passages Tacitus draws a parallels between the fate of these enslaved peoples and that of the enslaved Roman people -the first a slave to the Romans, the second a slave to the emperor and his bureaucracy made up of ex-slaves. Many subject peoples rebelled and some like the Cherusci under Arminius (towards whom he does not seem averse at all) could successfully preserve their liberty against the in-trusion of the Romans. Those Romans who dared defy the tyrant on the other hand, and especially those who could wisely remain independent and yet stay alive, were far fewer, Tacitus seems to imply. Insofar as it demonstrates how closely liberty (including liberty of thought) and morals are intertwined, this work is still relevant today as a central work of liberal humanism.

"How to Do Everything in HTML" does exactly what it says. It simply takes a beginner (like me) and shows how to use basic programming to do what you want rather than what you can figure out.

This is THE book I would recommend to someone who wants to know what HTML is and does but lacks prior computer programming experience. Even those familiar with other computer languages such as C++ or java will find the user-friendly approach by Pence a joy over most technical books.

If a beginner's book is what you want, here it is!

I was completely inexperienced and without HTML knowledge. I ordered this book from amazon.com and suddenly I have one of the best and prettiest websites ever. This book teaches you everything. I didn't even read it page by page. I just looked up what I was looking for or what I wanted to do on my website, used the codes and wa-la, instant beautiful results. This book saves you time and gives you precisely what you are looking for. Recommended 100%.

I think this book was more advanced than I was able to handle, considering I was a beginner computer user. Nevertheless, when I
e-mailed the author 3-4 times, he was always professional, courteous, and willing to help. It's a great book and has an author who stands behind his product. If you are into web-page design, this book is definitely worth its money.

Written for beginners, this book provides a solid foundation in how to write your own HTML (not how to use a WYSIWIG editor, such as FrontPage). Written in friendly, easy-to-understand language, the author progresses from chapter to chapter in a logical step-by-step fashion. What he doesn't cover in any given chapter is easily referenced in the Appendices, or in the many website links he provides. This book completely demystifies HTML.

However, what I found confusing when learning HTML is when and where to apply the all the different attributes (such as background color, font styles, text & image positioning and so forth). What I learned after having done a fair amount of web development is that cascading style sheets (CSS) are the way to go. This is explained in ch. 10. The reader of this book may wish to jump to this chapter at the beginning and be ahead of the game.

I took a course on HTML that lasted 4 months, and I thought I knew HTML after that. Two years after that I read this book, and in the month it took me to read it and summarize it, I learned more than what I did in that course. Not only does it teach you almost everything you need to know about HTML in an easy-to-follow way, but it also gets into other subjects like CSS, JavaScript and XML. Great book!