Clouds Books

This multimedia course is geared towards those who most likely have had Irish in school-- and I mean in Ireland-- years ago. It is not meant for beginners. I quote the back cover: but "at those who have studied Irish in the past and understand a great deal of the language, but have had few opportunities to use it in recent times." The "great deal" is the clincher. If you have not attained a past level of at least upper-intermediate fluency in speaking, listening, writing, and reading, you will flounder. Therefore, as one who has picked up admittedly less than "a great deal" of his smallish Irish by study outside of Ireland, I found this course more marginally but still relatively useful.

Why? It fills a niche left so far empty. It's arguably the first comprehensive multimedia learning platform oriented-- as its presenter, participants, and preparers show-- to Irish in its native habitat, as in our 21st century. (The author also wrote a useful "Teach Yourself Irish Grammar" in 2005; I review this and two other grammars, Donna Wong's "Learner's Guide to Irish," and Nollaig Mac Congáil's "Irish Grammar Book," on Amazon, as well as some of the other titles mentioned in the review you're reading.) While beginners can select from O Siadhail's formidable "Learning Irish," the Teach Yourself Irish series, or Transparent Learning's "Irish Now?" CD-ROM, to name the three usually found easily around the world, after this, what next?

The three TT videos record the 20 TV programs broadcast originally on RTE; these for learners will seem fast-paced. There's a helpful website link via RTE that explains more about the workings of the language as a refresher, as the intent of this book + video is to sharpen conversational skills and not duplicate grammatical book-learning. (Wong, Mac Congáil, and TYIG can all help the latter need.) The TT book itself is designed to be used with the videos, although it can be bought separately. The book has CD exercises that the video does not. The videos overlap with but do not duplicate most of the textbook and CD.

Here are the differences. The chapters in the book start with learner's tips, go on to dialogues, follow with activities for practice (if you don't have sufficient basic comprehension already, you need to review, as they move briskly), a glance at key phrases or idioms, a bit of grammar, a reading text, and a review. Answers to the exercises are appended.

For the videos, the dialogues are acted out--this is very helpful, as three conversations are given, one each with Munster, Connacht, and Ulster accents (and dialectal usages once in a while). This feature aids a learner's ear for the crucial differences in stress and grammar that arise and challenge you once you leave behind "caighdean" or standard "school" Irish. These differences are rapidly commented on by Sharon Ni Beolain, the affable host, but you need to understand the bulk of the basic conversation on your own first. What's explained are the more subtle points that a teacher or tutor would comment upon. There are other video features not in the text. For me, this lack of integration is a definite shortcoming of the text proper.

Why? The most glaring and frustrating instance is when you get a "soundscape" of "everyday" conversation ambiently recorded. I know immersion is the reason. But it is often hard to hear the details of what is said or likely mumbled-- and as no captions are available and no text is offered, you cannot advance much in your comprehension. The visit made by the host to native speakers is only alluded to in the text by a picture and caption; again, with only an English caption provided for the conversation, it helps comprehension to a degree, but it would have been much better if the videos had always provided both English and Irish captions that a learner could switch between for self-study. Irish captions, in fact, are rare, when I expected them to be parallel to the English option. This lack is the worst shortcoming that I found in the videos. Repeated viewings enable one to better "hear" the Irish, but for words or phrases you're still unsure about, there's no text or any way to verify or correct your mental version of what you think you're listening to.

A similar shortcoming exists with the enjoyable "reality show" that brings together six people to see if they'll divide into three couples, as they compete to find romance and to win a house in the Gaeltacht of their choice! This offers a great chance to accustom your ear to the various dialects and accents, but with only English as a caption, this falls short of its potential. I have to admit that the graphics for this currently "up-to-date" video series look surprisingly shoddy, and that in a few years the haircuts and fashions will be terribly if amusingly dated!

All in all, there's finally a choice on the market for intermediate learners, and for that RTE is to be commended. Four stars for effort; three for execution? But the lack of a total match between textbook and videos, as well as the absence for the most part of Irish captions added to not any captions in large segments does mean that you will have been expected to have a sharp ear for mastering the Irish you hear but will not be able to read-- neither on the video nor on the page.

Even if you don't know who Lewis Turco is, the prose and narration of his Fantaseers: A Book of Memories is a worthwhile, enjoyable read. His autobiography of growing up in Meriden, CT, during the 1940s and 1950s, is a collection of just plain good tales that any lover of autobiography will enjoy. If you do know something about him, and you believe in legacy, then the book is all that plus Turco's reflections on how his upbringing and ancestry came to bear on who he is.

The book is a quick but dense 135 pages. While so perceptive and engaging, it is also a treat, if not an indulgence, in well-crafted writing. Turco's style and diction are precise, showing his skill as poet without being pedantic, terse, or pretentious. The cast of characters and the order of some events can get confusing, due to the fact that some of the stories were written and published separately. At times, the gap between what is written and what is assumed of the reader can get impassable for those unfamiliar with Turco. These flaws are long forgiven when you finish reading.

In each story the words read so effortlessly as to betray the skill with which they were put together. In "The Mutable Past," for example, Turco speaks of "...getting up early - who knows why? - and hanging around the street while [his] slugabed friends kept their dreams alive." That passage and the rest of the story that follows speak much more than meets the eye about what dreams are and how the early bird gets those worms.

The book starts with a quick tour around the town in which he grew up, introducing you to some of the characters and places you will visit later. This introduction ends with a bittersweet image of the loss of childhood that you will carry for the rest of the book. From here Turco takes you on a spin through his youth that introduces you to his friends, enemies, parents, relatives, teachers, encounters with mysterious neighbors, and a telling review of his ancestry. These stories are just as enjoyable for those who reminisce for those days as they are enlightening for those who wonder what they were like. Each story has a theme that ranges from the epistemological (as in the already mentioned, "The Mutable Past") to the telling of a moral fable ("Ray"), to an examination of how he came into the world and chose his path in it ("Mom May" and "Father and Son").

The book ends in Turco's mid-twenties, before he starts his career as a teacher and gains his reputation as a poet. But much is answered by then for those who know his work, or know him personally, including his views on religion, a bit of politics, and lastly the explanation of his penchant for puns, which I will leave for you to discover by reading the volume yourself.

You could read hundreds of history books and still not really grasp what world events mean to individual lives, to their hopes and dreams and to their personal comedies and tragedies. Hayashi Fumiko does just that in this fine novel, and all while telling a good story in a sparse and stark prose style befitting her subject, a deteriorating and defeated relationship--and nation--struggling and groping tenaciously for life. The giddy high of Japanese colonialism in Southeast Asia with its undertone of violence and impending disaster comes alive in vivid everyday detail, correlating with the blossoming relationship between Yukiko and Tomioka, but the majority of the tale takes place in Tokyo after the defeat, and the sordid reality of survival in a devastated society and the toll this takes on the emotional lives of the couple likewise is rendered in grim and realistic detail. This correlating contrast entwines a universal tale of relationships ripening and then souring with the historically specific tale of what ordinary people in Japan went through in the 1940's in a compelling and effective manner.

That said, the novel isn't perfect. Sometimes the reader's patience with the main characters is sorely strained. Not that one has to like the characters for a novel to be good, of course, but sometimes Tomioka is such a deadbeat and Yukiko so predictably clingy that you start losing interest in what happens to them. And somehow the ending (I will reveal no spoilers) seems rushed and a bit forced, though very moving, definitely. Still, such a narrative could easily have lapsed into utter melodrama in the hands of a lesser writer, but Hayashi always keeps the tone subdued and real, displaying consummate literary talent and craftsmanship. When all's said and done, this is justifiably a classic novel of the mid-twentieth century.

And just a quick note, for anyone interested in the sudden rise of new religions in Japan and public perceptions of them, this novel offers a very intriguing and sarcastic take on the phenomenon.

Alien architecture requirements are quite whacky.


4 out of 5

Lee Grue's collection of stories bring the reader into the heart of the lower 9th ward, a place of trainyards and river-barges where to enter the Quarter is to re-surface in reality. A quirky and wonderful book which strips through the tourists' gloss and glaze of New Orleans and reveals the rich mahogany which lies underneath.

Get real! Read a realistic book. The book Grand Avenue is as real as it could get. It is a book that contains many stories that are linked together. These stories all have many different characters and take place in many different settings. They are so real that a variety of people could relate to them. It is full of anger, lust, personality, and distruction. The anger of one child leads to destruction when she burns down a barn because she couldn't save one horse. Another girl's relationship ended when she made a bad choice. It ends with plenty of life-long lessons that will capture the reader's heart. One reason that Grand Avenue is so easy to connect to is that the time period is so close to ours. The setting takes place in many different areas. Even though they aren't described well there are so many that the reader has to be able to connect to one. By connect , I mean if it sounds recognizable the reader can experience it more. Setting may not be described well, but it is still an important and large part of the book. The main themes are anger, lust, and destruction. The theme creates a world of suspense that is drowning in dangers. The dangers are not just imaginary. These dangers are ones that people have been victims of in the real world, too. One girl is determined to save a horse that she loves dearly. She can't save it so out of anger she burns down the barn that the horse had once been kept in. Another girl knows she's in love, but by making a bad choice her relationship ends. The characters in Grand Avenue have to learn important lessons the hard way. One can avoid the pain the characters go through and still learn life-long lessons, while reading Grand Avenue. Think about your relationships and problems. Do you want some help fixing them or making them better? Let my friends from Grand Avenue help. They'll do the dirty work for you. Make your life a little easier and have fun reading Grand Avenue.

A Cloud Mountain Christmas is a lovely story of healing and trust restored by award winning author Robin Lee Hatcher. Maddie Scott travels to Cloud Mountain Lodge in Idaho to complete a business deal. She doesn't expect to fall in love with the area, the community, or handsome lodge owner Tony Anderson.

A Match Made for Christmas is both heart touching and humorous. Kathryn Springer makes the small town of Jackson Lake and its inhabitants come alive. Sarah Kendle, youth leader, doesn't expect the Christmas project her seventh grade girls came up with to create such a stir. When reporter Conner Lawe travels home to aid his ailing father's newspaper, he sees a great Christmas story in the teens project. But Sarah doesn't want Conner too close, to her or the girls!

Both novellas are enjoyable, charming, and a quick read. They'll remind readers of the true meaning of Christmas and God's power to bring love and healing. I have yet to read a story by Robin Lee Hatcher that I don't like, and this one is no exception. But I enjoyed Kathryn's story even more. She created a marvelous place and wonderful characters in her story, and I'm hoping she will create more stories with the inhabitants of Jackson Lake.

Love, violence, and death on the American frontier play a part in this story of the early Mormons and their search for peace and freedom from persecution. Nathaniel, a young man from a Shaker background, has promised to help Hannah and her brother get safely from Ohio to Missouri, where her financé Dan is building a cabin for them. Despite his determination to assist, Nathaniel finds himself falling in love with Hannah. How can he hand her over to Dan and never see her again? His dilemma is made worse by the journey's trials and the threat of persecution. This book also explores the diversity of people who were attracted to this new, unique religion, and the groups from which they cam, religious and otherwise. Some came from a Huguenot background, one from the French settlement at Gallipolis, Ohio, some from the group known as "Seekers." One is an ex-slave. All these people combine to form a family group within the greater community, where they face the realities of persecution and sacrifice in order to stay together. Based on accounts and journals of the time, the book brings to life an exciting portion of American history.

And we always are in need. I got this book as a gift because my pastor, Dan Chun, is one of the featured pastors in this book. But beyond Dan's sermon, this collection is chock-full of incredible, Christ-filled sermons that you can go to when you feel you need a good Word. When you're caught between Sundays and you feel like you have to plug in to Jesus. So many pastors pull out all stops and save their best for a Christmas sermon. It's like reading the best-of from all these preachers. Joy To The World makes for a great Christmas present. Or a gift for all year 'round.

This book provides a great overview of clouds and information about the sky. It has wonderful pictures. My children ages 5-7 really learned a lot of useful stuff about the sky. It is great because we spend so much time looking at the sky. Now, they have names and now why the sky is blue. Very informative and reader friendly.