English Books

Very pleased! The book was in great condition and purchased for a great price! The delivery was expedient! Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile experience where the savings were beaucoup! Thanks!!!

I read this book for a graduate Humanities course. Buy this edition, it is the best with great critical essays. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, written in 1899 is a seminal work about the ills of colonialism, as well as a postmodern look at the subject of mankind. Conrad's book had a crucial influence on five important works of the twentieth century: J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Francis Ford Coppolla's movie Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius, was based on Conrad's book. Another interesting fact is that this work was read by Orson Welle's Mercury Theater Players on the radio and was to be his first movie. After doing some work on it he abandoned the project to do Citizen Kane! I would have loved to of seen what Welles could have done with this story. Conrad's story is so riveting in part, because he himself served as a riverboat captain. High school teachers and college professors who have discussed this book in thousands of classrooms over the years tend to do so in terms of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche; of classical myth, Victorian innocence, and original sin; of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and poststructuralism.

Just a taste of the plot reels you in! Marlow, the narrator of Heart of Darkness and Conrad's alter ego, is hired by an ivory-trading company to sail a steamboat up an unnamed river whose shape on the map resembles "an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land" (8). His destination is a post where the company's brilliant, ambitious star agent, Mr. Kurtz, is stationed. Kurtz has collected legendary quantities of ivory, but, Marlow learns along the way, is also rumored to have sunk into unspecified savagery. Marlow's steamer survives an attack by blacks and picks up a load of ivory and the ill Kurtz; Kurtz, talking of his grandiose plans, dies on board as they travel, downstream.

Sketched with only a few bold strokes, Kurtz's image has nonetheless remained in the memories of millions of readers: the lone white agent far up the great river, with his dreams of grandeur,his great store of precious ivory, and his fiefdom carved out of the African jungle. Perhaps more than anything, we remember Marlow, on the steamboat, looking through binoculars at what he thinks are ornamental knobs atop the fence posts in front of Kurtz's house and then finding that each is "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth" (57).

I especially became interested in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness from the movie Apocalypse Now. There is a scene in the movie that shows Colonel Kurtz's nightstand in his cave. T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land is one of three books on the nightstand. The other two are Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, and J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Anyone wanting to understand the movie Apocalypse Now, especially the character of Colonel Kurtz, and what Milius and Copolla are trying to tell their audience need to read these three books as well as Conrad's Heart of Darkness!

As a graduate student reading in philosophy and history I recommend this book for anyone interested in literature, myth, history, philosophy, religion and fans of Apocalypse Now.

... I reread Heart of Darkness because my "guys" reading group included two who had not ever read it. The story stands up far, far better than I would have guessed. Conrad is really superb, and this shortish novel could well persuade new readers that "literary" stuff is worth their while. I had forgotten how subtle, how grown-up Conrad's expectations of his reader are. Truly quite marvelous.

With trepidation, I splurged on the Norton edition, even though I am pretty hostile to English-Professor post-modern posturing and nonsense. I am glad I got it, however. The wealth of historical documents help make the then-contemporary setting come real. The big surprise for me was Chinua Achebe's fine essay. While "bloody racist" is still over the top, Achebe has a case of some importance, and argues it well. It is even a comfort to find that the knee-jerk responses by assorted literature professors are indeed just as much postie poo as I had expected. (It's always a pleasure to find that one's unexamined prejudices are warranted after all.)

A particular pleasure for me was talking about the book with my daughter, who has taught it to her honors high school English class. She has developed views, and I learned really quite a lot from listening to her. Book, $11.90; my time, $free; finding out your daughter has deep insight and can teach you, PRICELESS.

In short, wonderful story and useful edition.

Daytime scents of nightmare horrors. Man and his insane ways - bushman, postman, commoner, who to blame? Unless you are familiar with the background of this stunning novel do yourself a favor and get the Norton Critical Edition. For a century Conrad's novel has drawn raves and rage. Each is left to decide where the sanity line lies, to the right or to the left. Upriver or downriver? Riveting every page of the way.

I'll be honest - "Heart of Darkness" is a great, great work of literature, but I don't love the writing style, and it is not a pleasure to read (for me at any rate).

But it is not quite as hard as its reputation, and it is every bit as important. If there is one, "Heart of Darkness" is the definitive statement on European colonialism, especially in Africa. The symbolic meaning of the story is powerful and unanswerable.

The Norton Critical Edition of any book is usually the best - (not always: with Shakespeare I generally prefer the Signet Classics, and for "Pride and Prejudice" at least the Longman Cultural Edition is the best) - and "Heart of Darkness" is no exception. Like so many other books, you haven't understood this until you've understood what has been said about it. The NCE gives the best collection of critical essays available for someone new to the book.

Let me recommend a couple of easier reads for people interested in the genre of literature about colonialism. First is Burmese Days, which is one of Orwell's better books. It is a much more literal, tangible look at the realities of colonialism, and should probably be read before "Heart of Darkness." The other is The Quiet American (Viking Critical Library), which is less critical of colonialism, but still a very good look at the motivations of various people involved. I am very critical of "The Quiet American," but it is still among the first books that anyone interested in the literature of colonialism ought to read.

I loved this book. It is a book I love to read over and over again just because every story is a delight. The characters are well developed for the length of their stories. I especially love the way the authoress' had the all stories tie together.

If you're looking for a christian romance or interested in genealogy, this book may hit the spot for you. With segments written by four different authors, I found it rather uneven. The concept sounds good, but I just didn't find some of the heroines engaging.
It starts as a contemporary romance with Audrey MacMurray taking a genealogy class. She's attracted to the instructor, but backs off when she realizes he's a youth minister. Soured on religion by her missionary parent's abandoment of her, Audrey resists efforts to draw her into the religious activities. As she continues her research, the book jumps to ancestors of hers. This generates several sub-romances set in different periods of Scotland. One character, Celeste, is quite passive, though her growing feelings for her bodyguard mingle with her spiritual growth as he reads the Bible to her.

I thought this was a wonderful book! I read it in one day. I have never read a book like this before and wondered if I would like the fact that there are four stories in one book. However, I will be reading more books like this one. The characters were wonderful and the message was too! I highly recommend this book!

I enjoyed every second of reading this book.
It is so refreshing not to have to skip through pages of
endless smut that does not do anything for the story.
This was a wonderful blessing to read ! As a
family genealogist , it really made the stories
even more enjoyable to read.
Hope to see books like this to buy.
God bless and enjoy reading !

I'm not a real critic like some others. I just know what I enjoy and don't enjoy. I enjoyed this book very much. I read it to my husband at night in bed. We both enjoyed the book.

I have read several books with four stories in one book, and really enjoy them. I believe when four people write an ongoing, connecting story it must be hard to keep things together. I like the connecting story of Audrey in this book.

Reading out loud to my husband, I found myself reading with different voices for the different individuals. I guess I really got into the stories.

I love Christian fiction. I find other Christian people facing trials much as we do today. I find great encouragement and comfort in their relationship with Christ.

Interesting insight into some of the actors and a beautifully written story about Methos and his love.

If your a fan of the show grab this book!!!! Just a fan of the movies? You will be lost.

I thought this book did a terrific job of adding highlights and details to the immortals we have come to love watching and hearing about. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories by Laura Brennan, Anthony De Longis, The Postcards from Alexa (series), and Ken Gord. I did not however like a few of the stories, because they droned on, such as the staircase and death shall have no dominion. I am sure they are good stories on their own, but they did not fit in this collection of stories very well, in my opinion.

This is a wonderful book and a must read for all fans of "Highlander". The cast and crew did a marvelous job of joining forces one last time to give us several wonderful short stories. "Post Cards From Alexa" is moving and beautiful. While "Pants" is sure to give you a good laugh. I would recommend this book to any fan of the show or the movies.

Very interesting book. Written not only by professional writers, but also by members of the cast and crew, it turns out to be a good source for new Highlander related stories, for the delight of those who followed the TV series -- and always wanted more.

Some of the short stories complete the ones developed on TV, filling those blanks you didn't see on the show; others, makes you feel as if you were watching a brand-new episode of Highlander. The stories varies from writer to writer, but yet you are able to enjoy all of them equally.

My favorites are "Post Cards From Alexa" (if you like Methos, you'll love it), "The Star of Athena" (Amanda in her better shape), "Pants" (very funny), "Consone's Diary" (MacLeod from Consone's point of view), "The Methos Chronicles Part I" (centuries of Methos' life are covered here) and "The Other Side of The Mirror" (Adrian Paul trapped in an alternative world).

It was great to find this. My husband read it as a boy and wanted to find a copy to read to our sons.

This is a touching story written from the perspective of a little Chinese boy and his journey home through war raveged territory. I've read it over 5 times (including each year to my 5th grade class) and it's sweetneess still brings tears to my eyes.

Boys can be picky readers, so I always take notes if they actually love a book. My 8 year old carried this book everywhere and told be about it every night for a week. Besides Redwall or Harry Potter, this is the first book he has raved about.

I read this book aloud to my sixth grade reading class. They loved it, and always wanted to hear more. Its also a great way to introduce students to some of the history of China, Japan and US involvement in the war there.

I read this book as a child and, in turn, read it to my children. It has a permanent place in our hearts. It is the well written story of a young Chinese boy and his beloved pig, "Glory of the Republic", who get separated from his family and caught behind Japanese lines when Japan invaded China in the late 1930's. It has some very scary moments. It also has tragedy. I think your child should be about 5th or 6th grade to be able to fully appreciate it. But the book will open your eyes as to what it might be like as a child to be caught in a war. The boy does get reunited with his family, but have your kleenex handy. As a parent you will definitely need it at the end.

The Hunting of the Snark is a whacky piece of poetical silliness by Lewis Caroll. Complete nonsense, no-one knows what a Snark is, or why Snark hunters hunt it, or why anyone would want to become a Snark hunter to start with. Anyway, the poem is definitely amusing at times with some of the humour he slips in.

The Hunting of the Snark seems to be a very, very short imitation of The Canterbury Tales. The first chapter (titled a fit) introduces all of the occupations of all the different people going on a journey. However, instead of going on a general pilgrimage and telling tales along the way, their trip is very specific to hunting.

The Baker actually attempts to tell a story, but the Bellman (who leads the group) says there's no time for storytelling. They have to catch the Snark before nightfall.

Along with the Bellman and Baker, a Banker, a Bonnet-maker, a Butcher, a Boots, a Billiard-maker, a Barrister, a Broker, and a Beaver tag along to hunt for the Snark. The Beaver is afraid of getting cut by the Butcher, so he puts on a dagger-proof coat and talks to the Banker about buying an insurance policy.

The Beaver is involved in a hilarious scene with the Butcher later, when the two attempt to compute sums. But perhaps the funniest scene of the entire book is in the Barrister's dream when the Snark declares sentence on a pig, only to find out the pig has been dead long before the trial even began.

I'd highly recommend this short poem for Carroll fans, even though it's not big enough to contain but a small portion of what's to be found in the Alice books.

I have read a great deal of nonsense in the past, but this was by far the best nonsense that I have ever read. There is no point, no meaning, no sense, and no boringness. It is a delightful poem (which is well written and very fun to read aloud) about a crew on a ship hunting a snark. The crew includes a captain who only rings a bell, a beaver, a cook who only cooks beavers (the beaver and the cook did not get along well), a man afraid that the snark would turn into a boojum and make him disappear, etc. As you can tell, this makes for an insanely silly poem. The subtitle is rather fitting, as my sides were definitely hurting from laughter when I was done. Well done Mr. Carroll.

Overall grade: A+

Nonsense poems can easily miss the mark
Yet, this masterpiece has that spark.

"How do you kill a _____?", you ask
To find the answer was the hunters' task.

"What was their fate?", you wonder
Did they ever catch their elusive plunder?

A paragon of haunting Carollian lore
Be in no doubt that you'll finish wanting more.

This poem is just great!

First, this one of the most delightful pieces of writing that ever appeared in (more or less) English. It succeeds as a sustained exercise in illogic. I am sure that only a mathematical logician like Dodgson could possibly have pulled it off - only someone with such deep understanding of reason could master unreason so completely.

Second, Martin Gardner's commentary adds depth and background to the reading. Gardner explains terms that are now obsolete, but also adds his own analysis and a rich history of the Snark phenomenon. It should be no surprise that Gardner is still best known as the long-time editor of Scientific American's column on Mathematical Games, a mathematician himself.

I can't add much to the scholarship or praise that already surrounds this incredible poem. I would like to point out, however, that most non-native English speakers are unfamiliar with this poem. Many of them have only ever seen the serious side of the English language, and have never seen English at play. I consider this short work to be the ideal introduction to the very best of English-language nonsense.

//wiredweird

Surely, if this man had any other surname, this novel would have received the acclaim it deserves... the cloud!

"Reading some of the reviews I notice a few individuals reading much further than the words on the pages - a word for those Millionaire virgins... try not to do this until say, your 5th or 6th read. It may interfere with your enjoyment "
- ME, just then

To think I stumbled on it by ACCIDENT, attracted to a 1984 re-print with a compass on the cover, having recently read a half entertaining nautical adventure! A read so enjoyable I'm almost relieved it did not receive its due - over-analysed masterpieces and authors often get spoiled through the process, or on occasion battered into a film... the silver lining! Enjoy!

"An Innocent Millionaire" is a bitter book and quite obviously the work of an angry man. Vizinczey gives vent to his hatreds on just about every page of his novel. Some of his targets are well-ventilated already: lawyers, taxes, junk culture, greedy corporations, etc. But it is his two main hatreds -- women and New York City -- that cause him to lose perspective and damage an otherwise rather impressive novel.

First the misogyny. Vizinczey's dislike of women leaps from every page of this book. Most of the women in his story are just the tools of the rich men in their lives. Almost all of them are faithless. The few successful women all slept their way to the top. Take, for example, the female character who publishes and edits a prestigious fashion magazine. Before we have a chance to waste any admiration on her, V assures us that she is no more than an ex-fashion model whose married lover bought the magazine for her just to keep her happy. Another successful woman whom V takes pains to keep us from admiring is the Chief Valuation Officer for the Bahamian Ministry of Finance. Despite the fact that the woman has earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida, a masters from the University of Toronto, and a doctorate from the London School of Economics, V dismisses her as "Nassau's top she-bureaucrat" (note: none of the male bureaucrats in the book is ever referred to as a "he-bureaucrat") and assures us that she is nothing more than an overeducated secretary who acquired her government position by sleeping with her boss. As the main characters are leaving this woman's office, they deride her with an anecdote one of them believes is worthy of "Playboy" and dub her "Miss Passionate" -- a reference to another secretary they all disdain. In fact, V seems to have a special distaste for female secretaries. In a later scene, after the main character concludes his business with a female secretary who has never been anything but pleasant with him, V concludes: "If there is a hell, there must be a special pit reserved for nice, sweet, charming intelligent secretaries who have spent their niceness, sweetness, charm and intelligence on covering up for their bosses."

But even more than women, V hates, despises, LOATHES New York City. The last third of the book is nothing more than an extended diatribe against New York lawyers, New York art dealers, New York politicians, ad nauseum. It's a shame, too, because this bile poisons the book just as the shipwreck story is beginning to get interesting. But the shipwreck and its history pretty much vanish once V sets his sites on his real target: NYC. In fact, in many ways, the Note From The Publisher appended to this edition of the novel by the University of Chicago Press (and which, by the way, reads as if it were written by the author himself) is a small analog of the novel itself. The Note starts out interestingly enough by telling us that Vizinczey is a difficult name to pronounce, leading us to expect that somewhere before the Note's end we will learn that pronunciation, just as in the book we hope that somewhere near the story's end we will learn the final fate of the shipwrecked Flora. But, alas, the promise is never kept and the Note, like the novel, devolves into another cliched rant against NYC, which is taken to task for failing to fully appreciate Vizinczey's genius. Although we are assured that the book was reviewed favorably by the NYTimes Book Review when originally released, we are expected to share the author's outrage that it was reviewed in brief and apparently not given the kind of consideration that a major literary work deserves. We are told that when the author's first novel was published in 1966, it received so little notice in New York that it had to be remaindered after three months. As if New York City itself is responsible for the fate of every author who doesn't become as well-praised as, say, Graham Greene. Tens of thousands of novels get published in this country every year. Just to get mentioned in the NYTBR is a rarity for most writers.

At any rate, I for one had no difficulty understanding why the culturati of NYC (or anywhere else, for that matter) might have been underwhelmed by An Innocent Millionaire. For one thing, it is burdened by the author's blatant efforts to evoke the reader's memory of Heinrich von Kleist's tale "Michael Kohlhaas," a much better story of justice denied. Kleist's name is evoked about twenty times during the course of the novel, just in case we don't get the connection. It is almost as if V had been trying to write his own reviews of the book and became bitter when the NYC reviewers wanted disagreed with his self-assessment. This heavy-handedness combined with the author's troubling misogyny and blind hatred for NYC torpedo what could have been a really great novel. At one point in the book a character derides such schlocky plotboilers as Colleen McCullough's "The Thorn Birds" and Sydney Sheldon's "A Rage of Angels." V is a better writer than either of those two populists, but his novel is only slightly more worthwhile than Sheldon's and not nearly as well-realized as McCullough's. Ironically, it is V's hatred of NYC that does him in. He seems to be insisting over and over again that NYC isn't worth the consideration of any decent person, much less a true artist (one of his Ten Commandments for writers is "Thou Shalt Not Worship London/New York/Paris"). But if NYC is so beneath his consideration why does he fume so over the fact that his work hasn't been better received there? He should have stuck with his shipwreck story and left his hatred of NYC for some other venue.

Stephen Vizinczey (sp?) is, in my estimation, the greatest living author I've read. Or at least my favorite. He is also a great hero of mine, and I do not have many heros.
Why is this? The man tells the truth. He isn't concerned with the consequences of revealing his thoughts to all comers. A previous reviewer accused him of misogyny, but I don't believe she's read "In Praise." I think what she was pointing to is a quality I regard as a virtue in Mr. Vizinczey. He is brutally honest in all things, and for a man playing at being omniscient, he does a pretty good job. One of these things he is honest in is the role that appearance plays in our thoughts and interactions. Some people use sex appeal outside of the bedroom. Sometimes the social progress people make in life is tied to their attractiveness, and sometimes this is not the case. Mr. Vizinczey is not the only one who finds this remarkable.
Mr. Vizinczey has also taught me a great deal about life. To get any lasting knowledge from a book is noteworthy, but the roles that two of his have played in my life seem more like the work of the Hand of God. I read this book at the age of 24, working my way up the economic and social ladder in NYC, and at the same time, hating the goals of success. The first 200 pages confirmed my beliefs about the cannibalistic nature of success, and then, as I contemplated giving up on my idea of success, my fictional alter-ego's luck got better. He met a lawyer who took on the case he had previously lost all hope in winning, and still was not quite convinced that it was worth trying. Mark Niven said something like, "The world is evil!" To which his attorney replied, raising his arms and looking at the sky, "But there is also chance."
Damn, that was a valuable lesson.

I read this book once in high school and once in my third year of college. When I first read An Innocent Millionaire I was intrigued by the adventure. As an adult I found that the book was really about life , of tragedy and the state of the world we live in. This book is a must read.

In difficult times we like to turn to books, especially to novels. But it would be a mistake to think that only light and syrupy stories bring us relief. On the contrary, we need the company of authors who, thanks to their perceptiveness and creative vigor, describe the world as it is, without false embellishment. We sense that these writers are able to face the worst of all possible worlds because they keep alive in themselves the promise of peace and goodness. For this reason we are moved by their vision.

Vizinczey's Innocent Millionaire brings us such a subtle solace. The novel is an enthralling roller-coaster of fortunes and passions, full of striking dialogues. It even manages to say something new about the birth of love. Marianne, the heroine of an ultimately tragic love affair, is one of the most lovable woman I have ever encountered in fiction, surpassing even the desirable and generous ladies of the author's previous masterpiece In Praise of Older Women. But this is a very different novel. Here the author weaves a tragic love relationship into the story of a fraud, showing how small and ridiculous are all those stupid and greedy people who make our life miserable or dull. If you are satisfied with the world as it is and approve its values, you will scorn this book. But for the dissatisfied reader, it is a rare treat and a unique source of comfort.

This was the third is the Lytton Family Trilogy of books..
A page turner, as were the first 2 !! So well researched and written.
If you love long family stories you will love these books.
Even the ending of this, the third was just right!
A great read!

I just finished Into Temptation, No. 3 in this superior trilogy, and can honestly say this trilogy is the best thing I've read since Gone With The Wind! I'm 70 years old, an avid reader of anything British and am so thankful I found this series before it was too late! Quick, grab the first volume of this series pronto and stay with it until the very last word on the very last page of the very last volume. You'll never regret it!

This was the best trilogy's I have ever read. I am sorry it's over now. I agree with all the other readers on how great these books were. I am also suprised most people have never heard of these books. I love the old English family saga's. I also loved Barbara Taylor Bradford's Woman of Substance.

This was the book I enjoyed most in the trilogy. It is interesting from the beginning to the end and I was very sorry when I came to the last page. It is one book that I will read again maybe next year.

This is the 3rd book in the trilogy! I love it just as much as the other 2 books. I am going to be sad when I am finished with it. I have never enjoyed a trilogy as much as this one!

This important book reveals another dimension to Tolkien that remains obscured by his monumental storytelling. Tolkien was gifted with a many-sided creativity, as most artists are, and his visual creativity casts as vivid a vision of re-enchantment as his written work.

This book is much better than I thought it would be. Mostly I was curious to see more of Tolkien's art, but the text that goes along with it is wonderful. Christopher Tolkien asked the authors to write this book to showcase his father's art, and they do a wonderful job of describing the pictures, pointing out details that I missed, and putting them in context of when and where and why Tolkien drew them. Several versions of the same pictures are shown so you can see how Tolkien worked through a problem until he found the best final product. Plus the inspirations for some of the pictures are also shown, to show that Tolkien copied others sometimes, but in the end put his own mark on it. By copied, I don't mean plagarized. He drew his eagle from a book of birds to make sure he got it right, or was inspired by other artists particular works. Highly recommended if you are a Tolkien fan. If you are just into art and not a Tolkien fan, then I don't think this will interest you.

This book is a great way to collect some of Tolkien's best works of art and to get a glimpse behind the scenes of one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. Highly recommended.

Lleno de ilustraciones color, y algunas en blanco y negro. Me gusta porque es lo que Tolkien imaginó para sus obras... eso es lo que lo hace más hermoso. Además demuestra que Tolkien era un alma muy sensible, amante de la naturaleza, y esto se refleja no solo en sus libros sino también en sus dibujos. Me gustaría que estos dibujos estén incluidos en sus obras, no solo los dibujos de otros artistas. Hermoso, hermoso, para todos los admiradores de Tolkien.

This book features many of Tolkien's ink, watercolor, pencil, and colored pencil works. The detailed descriptions of each drawing include history, explanations, and dates. Quite a few maps are included, as well as illustrations for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is wonderful to see how Tolkien imagined Middle Earth and its inhabitants. The colors he used are very earthy and lovely.

My favorite drawing in this book is "End of the World" done in pencil and colored pencil on a sheet of notebook paper - you can actually see the lines of the paper. It is so simple; yet, the story it tells includes subtle intricacies and complexities similar to those in his writings. I also love the pencil and colored pencil drawing, "The Tree of Amalion," which obviously blooms with the flowers of Tolkien's imagination since they do not resemble traditional flowers. Finally, the hand drawn Christmas cards are beautiful mini-stories with dancing bears and penguins, and Father Christmas making deliveries.

This book is truly exquisite, full of details and surprises for those of us who didn't know Tolkien was an extremely talented artist. It is a worthwhile purchase in my opinion.

J.H. Sweet, author of The Fairy Chronicles

This is a wonderful tool to be able to share the gospel with our Japanese friends.

The English and Japanese texts run alongside each other, with the English at times spaced out so that the two translations of the same verse in the two languages are lined up as much as possible. That makes it easy to jump back and forth between the languages.

I do sometimes use a magnifying glass to read the furigana (hiragana pronunciations in extra small print directly above the kanji). As I am learning the symbols more and more, however, I am using the magnifying glass less. The book itself is smaller than I had envisioned -- comparable to my English study Bible.

I am very pleased with this purchase -- it is exactly what I was looking for!

This is an excellent Bible. My bone to pick is that it is very large and heavy. We give it as a gift to our Japanese exchange students while they visit the U.S. It is invaluable in helping them to understand their visits to church. The problem is that it uses up a lot of their 50 lb. checked baggage weight limit, when they fly back to Japan. We worry that it is the first thing to go in the garbage at the airport when their bags are overlimit. There is another bilingual Bible, in small format, with no helps in back, but I haven't been able to find one since 2004. We bought it for $25 back then. Please email me if anyone has a source for it. Now, this version is the only one we can find, and it is cheaper straight from the International Bible Society [...].

The Japanese-English Bible is so wonderful. I am a native-English speaker and am learning Japanese so it is wonderful to see English and Japanese translations of the bible side by side. The NIV is my favorite translation of the bible as well. it's hardcover so the bible last forever. there are two cloth bookmarks attached to the bible. i think every kanji has the furigana pronunciation above it. i was a little disappointed when i read "tomodachi" and only the "tomo"'s kanji was given since I have since learned the whole word's characters, but it is still good for me to know the pronunciation and what part of the word each kanji makes. this is a fascinating buy and it's something i don't regret!

If you are a native English speaker living in Japan or studying Japanese, and if you need the WHOLE Bible with side-by-side translations on each page, with furigana over the Kanji to show you how the Kanji is pronounced, then this is the Bible for you.

Leigh Branham has done an admirable job writing a practical manual for keeping good employees. I believe any employer will find scores of proven tactics they can apply at once. As Joe Bosch of Pizza Hut says: "If a company implemented just four or five of these practices, they would be significantly better at retaining talent." Gee. Making more money because your employees are motivated. What a concept.

Doni Tamblyn is author of Laugh and Learn: 95 Ways to Use Humor for More Effective Teaching and Training and The Big Book of Humorous Training Games (Big Book of Business Games Series)

I read the book as part of an MBA mid-term project and would recommend this to any line manager or human resource practitioner who wants real, proven ideas and thoughts about attracting, retaining and developing quality employees. The book is very well structured and easy to read, yet a no-nonsense approach and in depth look at retaining valuable people.

Finally an employee retention resource from an outstanding consultant that combines practical step by step instructions with theory AND excellent examples from top companies. Keeping outstanding employees should be a top priority for every business, but unfortunately retention often runs a distant second to recruitment. Leigh Branham takes the mystery out of keeping top employees by providing business owners, managers and consultants proven retention tips. After introducing each retention practice, Leigh provides a questionnaire to evaluate your company's effectiveness. Plus the appendix is filled with surveys, checklists and evaluations you can start using today! As a consultant and coach, I am using Leigh's material with companies and individual clients and getting excellent feedback.

Keeping the best employees is a goal that is not often met in today's changing and fluid new economy. Leigh Branham introduces four key strategies designed to help an organization keep the employees it wants. These solid practices are designed to have a positive impact on an organization's best workers by increasing motivation, performance and satisfaction. These four key points are organized in parallel with an employee's life cycle in an organization:

Key #1: Be a company people want to work for.
The leadership of the organization must create an environment where three essential elements are put into place: adopt a "give and get back" philosophy, measure what counts and pay for it, inspire commitment to a clear vision and definite objectives.
Key #2: Select the right person in the first place.
Poor recruiting decisions today result in the poor performers of tomorrow. An organization must claim responsibility for recruiting to ensure it not only chooses the right candidate, but also stays connected to the external business community, and thereby having access to the full diversity of the talent pool.
Key #3: Get them off to a great start.
Knowing that between 50 and 60 percent of employees change jobs within the first seven months, it is seasoned experienced manager and leaders that focus on this critical period to the organization keeps its best employees. The keys elements during this period: communicate how their work is vital to success, get commitment to a performance agreement, and give autonomy and reward initiative.
Key #4: Coach and Reward to maintain commitment.
To sustain an employee's commitment to the organization, his relationship with his manager is a critical element. It is said that 50 percent of satisfaction at work is determined by an employee's relationship with his or her manager. Managers should: proactively manage the performance agreement, recognize results, and give employees tools to take charge of his or her career.

If at all possible, this book should be read in combination with Branham's subsequently published book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It's Too Late, and preferably read first. That is desirable but not imperative. Either book can firmly stand on its own merits and both are "must reading" as competition for talent becomes increasingly more aggressive. That said, the subtitle of this earlier book correctly indicates what it provides: "24 ways to hang on to your most valuable talent." Branham carefully organizes his material within eleven chapters and focuses on four "Keys," providing with each several "retention practices." Too many business books are bloated with theory but wholly impoverished in terms of practicality. For that reason, I commend Branham on the fact that he devotes most of his attention to explaining HOW to establish and then increase the appeal of an organization that people want to work for, how to hire the right people in the first place, how to get new hires off to a great start, and how to use effective coaching and appropriate rewards to sustain their commitment. Well done!