Minnesota Books

Scholarly, substantive, and engaging as it is, Liberman's dictionary in his own words is "written to test the chosen approach to the new dictionary" he has put together. The dictionary is intended to be a model for future etymological exploration and study. Most importantly for the field, it introduces but mostly exemplifies a new approach to the investigation of word origins and deciding on the right root for a word, when this can be done with a reasonable degree of assurance. As Liberman states and demonstrates with his analyses of 55 words, the large majority common, "tracing word origins is a game of probabilities" in which the "centrifugal principle" should be favored when it comes to assigning a word's cognate. This principle is explained, "All conditions being equal, tracing a word to a native root should be preferred to declaring it a borrowing. In similar fashion, it is more attractive to refer to an ascertainable foreign source than to an unidentifiable substrate."

Liberman is a professor of Germanic philology at the U. of Minnesota and author of many books and articles on etymology and language. Most of the 55 words he has chosen for this first book of a planned series are simple words. Among these are bird, drab, ever, dwarf, gawk, key, lass, man, pimp, toad, and witch. Nearly every word is traced to a root word among the northern European family of languages, the basis for Anglo-Saxon and modern English. The word "jeep" is an obvious exception. A few of the words are controversial four-letter or gender terms.

While the author's "centrifugal principle" sets relevant limitations and preferences for deciding on the root of a particular word, the etymological practice demonstrated in his analysis of the more than 50 words is complex and depends on much scholarly knowledge. In these analyses, Liberman does not simply follow a line of apparent related words to a root word, as seen in most dictionaries, including even the esteemed multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary. For Liberman's search for the most probable root entails assessing other respected etymologists' research and conclusions, comparing similar words or possible cognates from several languages, and arguing for why the particular root identified is preferable. In other words, Liberman goes well beyond simply denoting a word root. He aims not only to clarify etymology where able, but to unearth its complexity where called for both to correct errors and assumptions regarding particular words and improve etymological methodology and research.

Word lovers will find the lengthy, involved articles on the number of particular familiar and few obscure words engaging. Most significantly for the field of etymology is his methodology; which is both rigorous and flexible in reaching probable attributions for word roots. With scientific method (as opposed to the frequent presumptions and conventions), literary (i. e., writing) and reasoning ability, and incomparable scholarship, Liberman charts new paths in the field of etymology.

I used this book as a main resources for a paper I wrote in college about the experiences of Jewish-American women. I quickly fell in love with this book - the history and real life stories are fascinating and really make you think.

We borrowed this book from the local library just because my children (5 & 4 yrs old) picked it out. To our surprise, this book quickly became a favorite and my children (and husband) just didn't put it down. We live out in the country, and every day the kids would be out in the yard with a magnifying glass looking for different tracks and comparing to the ones in the book! Soooo, I gave this book 5 stars for the simple fact that there are lots of tracking books out there, and I'm sure some are more complete, however this is extremely easy to use and even children can enjoy exploring the outdoors! However, let me add that my hubby is an avid trapper, and he found it just as great - so it's not TOO simple either. I've only seen the MN & WI version, but I'm sure the other states that are covered in different versions would be very similar. We highly recommend getting your own copy as we did, and start exploring!

Again, the pictures in the book are easy enough to use for my 3 year old. The information contained in the book is useful. We enjoy using this book and look forward to the spring and summer when we can travel further than our backyard.

I do believe there is not an English monarch or a mover and shaker around them that Barber has not written a book about. I might be wrong, but not by much! His works are wonderfully researched and developed, making them a pleasure to read. While he has written biographies on many different people, he has a vast list of books on Arthur and Grail Lore.

I really like this one, because he looks past the valiant legend and searches out Arthur the man. Arthur - as far back as Longshanks - has been molded and used to their purposes - so it's hard to peel back all the layers and get back to original Arthur.

Barber takes on that chore of removing the many embellishments, in a work that is enjoyable for the average reader as well as the Grail Addicts. Loaded with medieval paintings and woodcuttings this book is a wealth of information.

A must for any Grail Lore Library.

This book has a photo of each flower. It gives the height, amount of sunlight, problems of the plant such as disease resistant or insects, spacing, when to plant, when the plant blossoms, etc. A real keeper for a novice gardener like myself.

This is a very interesting and very introspective account from behind the scenes in the landmark Cohen v. Cowles supreme court case. Reporters broke their promise to Cohen not to print his name as the person who disclosed public arrest records of the 1982 candidate for Minnesota Lieutenant Governor. Cohen lost his job and was ruined. By contrast the candidate who was the subject of the public records served two terms as lieutenant governor. The candidate for whom Cohen worked went back to being a billionaire businessman.

This book tells the story how Dan Cohen and Elliot Rothenberg won this landmark case in the U.S. Supreme Court.

I love alphabet books and I love all things referencing nature and life in the northern woodlands. This book has various elements that are unique to an alphabet book. First, the A starts off with January and goes through the year with Z ending with December. This is noted at the bottom of the page and the month/season is depicted in the illustration. For example A for Antler shows a snowy landscape in the back. Another example is August showeing the time that beavers build a dam in their Pond (P). I love the seasonal element especially since I feel our young children are growing up with only commercial holidays as the indicators of our seasons (locked inside air conditioned buildings away from nature, etc.). The illustrations are woodcuts that were then colored with paint and they are beautiful and fun. (Can you tell I am also a woodcut admirer?) The illustrations are sometimes lifestyle representing such as E as Evening depicting parent and children reading and writing by lantern-light and Q as Quiet near the edge of the pond. (These illustrations are not purely animal or nature references.) Some modern day machines also are represented by G as Grader and O as Outboard (boat motor) so this is not purely an old-fashioned or timeless depiction. Letters are represented in woodcut with both capital and lower case print style and the word features woodcut as well with the first letter of the word in capital and the rest in lower case. A short paragraph of usually two sentences describes the scene and often times includes personal experiences of the author.

Reminds me of "A Farmers Alphabet" which represents old-fashioned life in Vermont for its lovely woodcut illustrations and clearly marked letters that are good for teaching young children the alphabet.

This author has a similar book on counting which I plan to read and buy in the future called "Gathering". I am hoping it is as wonderful as this book.

Archer puts suburbia into historical context, going back to before it was even known as this. Its beginnings were in the "nascent bourgeoisie...philosophical, economic, and political circumstances" of late seventeenth century England. Especially, the "new architectural type [of] the compact bourgeois villa" came to be seen as an ideal residence by the nascent bourgeois public. This architecture type allowed for a "new settlement pattern" different from the traditional ones of dense urban development and sprawling manors--namely, suburbia with its homes surrounded by lawns clustered in country-like areas. Along with laying out the cultural and philosophical origins of suburbia, including the developing concept of the self, Archer presents both sides of the assessment of suburbia. In modern-day America, where the majority of the population now live in suburbia, there has for many decades been an ongoing debate over whether suburbia is the acme of the American dream of prosperity and upward mobility or an illusion entailing the stifling of individuality and cultivation of materialism. Archer's book is substantive enough to be a text in college courses on suburban studies, while also being accessible and engaging enough as a timely work of cultural studies for the general reader. The author is a professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the U. of Minnesota. With material ranging from Enlightenment English philosophy to portrayals of suburbia in recent movies, from architectural plans of the "compact bourgeois villa" to inventions such as lawnmowers and economic changes such as new banking practices associated with suburbia, the work demonstrates how fertile this subject is while bringing it into focus and drawing the avenues for further exploration of it.

Edwin Lundie loved to use heavy, visible timbers in his designs of country houses and cabins. And he loved to use warm, earthy color tones, custom-made hardware and rough-hewn, rustic fireplaces and chimneys.

The result is soothing, comfortable and visually memorable.

His city houses have a storybook quality, evoking early New England. Interiors of these houses are lighter, more formal and delicate than those of his country houses, but there still are rustic elements in brick, stone, wrought iron and hand carved wood.

You can see all of this in The Architecture of Edwin Lundie, a lovely book filled with color photography and Edwin Lundie's skilful drawings.