Breton Books

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The easiest and best Undergraduate Statistics' Textbook that I have found . Excellent examples which are very practical an easy to understand . Professor Pagano is a superstar Teacher with many years of experience and students who have have him have been so fortunate .

Nestor Mantilla

The info contained in the chapters is pretty good and I appreciated the examples of how to do the work, however...if you're a student and you want to check your homework, that might be a little hard. The author only lists SOME of the answers to the homework, and the answers they do have usually don't tell you how they arrived at those answers. What they NEED to provide is a student solutions manual. I'd be happy to pay extra for it, but they don't have it. They do sell a student study guide, which I did purchase and that does help some, but it's not even close to what would allow the student to understand the homework problems in a step by step manner. Would someone at the publishing house PLEASE provide a student solutions manual??? PLEEEEASE!!!!!!!!

Prior to the first edition of this text I used a different text in my introductory statistics course each year because students did not like my text selections. I've used Pagano's text every year since the first edition was published in 1981 because every year the students tell me to retain this text. It is superbly written and exquisitely designed. It is the best text of its kind that I have seen in the past 25 years of teaching the subject.

My son, 6-yr-old with autism, has been on this diet for over 2 years, and I just read this book. It was very interesting reading the perspective of a child on the diet. I am now even more motivated to keep my son on the GF/CF diet. If you're thinking of starting it, this book will settle some of your concerns about implementing it, such as how your child will adjust, whether they really will start eating what you cook, what to do when other family members are not on the diet, etc. The author is also not the only child in his family who is GF/CF; he has two brothers on the diet as well and describes their experiences with it.
Luke and family are in the UK, so the appendices written by his mother will be more helpful for UK than US readers, but there is also lots of information that applies in the US. She provides some sample menus and recipes - there really are plenty of things to eat after eliminating gluten and casein. They have also included a list of sources for products, both for the UK and US.

I found this book very informative and as I also have Luke Jackson's other book freaks geeks and aspergers which I also found great. Both books have given me a much better understanding of my son's High Functioning Autism and how he feels and how I may be able to help him.... I recommend it thoroughly.

I am the grandmother of a wonderful 6-year-old boy who has been diagnosed autistic, and I've read both Luke Jackson's books (written at ages 12 and 13) in order to get a more complete understanding of the condition from a "kids eye view". I can only hope that Luke keeps writing for the masses.

This particular book is a treasure. The reader is treated to Luke's keen powers of observation and unflagging sense of humor, as always. We also get a couple of chapters written by his exceptional mother, Jacqui, who modestly denies being a "superwoman." (I beg to differ.) It's Jacqui who convinced me that if a woman in charge of a household of eight persons can master the art of gluten-free cooking, then the rest of us just might be equal to the task, as well. Last but not least, recipes, menus, and tips on acquiring and organizing necessary equipment are provided in thorough, easy-to-understand detail.

Perhaps all that might not sound exciting to the average person, but I can assure you that this is one of the most interesting and absorbing books ever to address the titled topics. Witness: in the middle of a work week, I began reading the book at about 11:30 p.m. and read it straight through. I couldn't put it down until I finished at nearly 3:00 a.m.

Inspired by Luke's work, I have gone on line to look up more information about gluten-free diets and related topics and have found a wealth of valuable information. However, the language I used to talk my grandson's family into attempting this new lifestyle came straight from the book reviewed here.

An invaluable resource. A "must" read for anyone dealing with a person who on "the autism scale." Thank you and bravo, Luke, Jacqui and Marilyn Le Breton. You have made a very necessary contribution with this publication.

In this book, Luke Jackson explores the effect of the gluten free/casein free (GF/CF) diet on himself and his family and gives practical advice for how to apply it in everyday life. The long appendices (they take up half the book) by his mother, Jacqui Jackson, describe GF/CF recipes, parental notes on implementing the diet, and other resources related to the diet.

The only problem with the book is the enthusiasm with which the diet is presented for all autistic people, and the assumption that it will not harm people to try it so therefore everyone should. This is a diet that only works for people, whether autistic or not, who have specific digestive problems or allergies. If they don't have these problems, they won't need the diet, and the diet can be harmful (physically or financially) to people on it. The author's enthusiasm, given the diet's success for him and his family, is understandable, but it extends slightly too far.

For people who need the diet, though, this is a good book to read for a thorough introduction to how it works and how it can better the lives of people with those specific digestive problems, whether they are autistic or not.

Helias's book is one of the classics of a genre known as "literary ethnography." Works in this style are designed both to provide a thorough understanding of life in a community as well as to artistically portray the experience of doing field research through well-written and elegant prose. Helias grew up in the community that he returned to study. Consequently, he knows about the daily life of his community, and his training in European folklife studies provides him with an amazing resource for writing about the quotidian realities of Breton folk culture. The book provides solid ethnographic description of daily life in the peasant village, and he writes of the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of daily life with equal grace and ease. The book reads beautifully, and the insights are timely and even more poignant 20 years after he completed his insightful study. This book is an inspiration to writers who present studies of folklife throughout the world, and it is essential reading for anyone interested in ethnographic writing.

Helias eloquently writes of life in his home village in this classic portrait of Breton folklife. He provides sufficient historical context to help readers understand the culture, but most of his descriptions come from his own memories and experiences. Sections where he describes life in the village and fields are especially interesting, and they provide rich details about everyday life. Helias left the village for higher education. The book's final chapters balance out the rich experiences of his childhood with the reflections of a seasoned scholar. This mixture of autobiography and ethnographic study makes the book especially interesting and poignant.

This is an amazingly detailed description of childhood in the last generation of Breton peasant society. Helias was born and raised in Pouldreuzic, a village in Brittany not far from the coast (but far enough a trip on foot for the villagers to consider themselves inland farmers, not coastal fishermen). Helias was born just before the outbreak of World War I, and his much of his childhood was framed by the departure of the fathers from the village to fight in the French army, and the societal changes that came about on their return. After graduating from the village grammar school, Helias was selected for a scholarship so that he could continue his education at a lyceum in Quimper. Although studying in Quimper meant that he had to adopt a new French rather than Breton persona, his felt that his roots would always remain in Pouldreuzic. This book, written when Helias was in his 60s, is a reliving of Helias' youthful years in Pouldreuzic, covering village economic life, social mores, religion, education, work, and attitudes towards the society of greater France.

Helias' family was neither well-off nor poor by village standards. They owned a cow, they had sufficient food and clothing, and best of all, Helias' grandfather owned their plot of land. Many other villagers often went hungry, and some had no place to live, so Helias considered himself fortunate as a child. Nevertheless, the living conditions that Helias describes as normal sound shockingly primitive by modern standards. Of course, there was no central heat, but there was also frequently no fuel for the luxury of heating their simple one or two-room houses. Laundry was washed once or twice a year, and the floors of the houses were made of mud. Not only was there no running water, but latrines were also apparently not in vogue, and people relieved themselves in the fields or behind bushes. There was a great value in being part of the community, since the entire village would gather for work parties to thresh grain or gather hay. Religion was extremely important to the community, and served to preserve the cohesiveness of the Breton culture since the priests gave validity to the Breton society by addressing the villagers in their own language. Education, in contrast, took place in French, and the brightest children, those with the most promise for future leadership, found themselves drawn away from the village as their skills in French developed.

Though Breton peasant life was hard, Helias finds much to recommend in it. He appreciated honest labor, and a story well-told. Helias closes the book with a chapter examining the changes that have come to Brittany since his childhood and weighing whether these changes have been for the good. This is not a book that can be skimmed quickly. With Helias' incredible eye for detail, this book requires a long and careful reading.

Rumi's mystic is the mystic of love which doesnt have beginning and end,wherever you start from , it does represent a portion of flood-wise that sweep out all conventional understanding.Neither Rumi nor Hafez represent any certain culture but LOVE that emerge in forms of paradoxical verses depend on your preception.I respect Rumi's Masnawi as encyclopaedia of mysticism,but I would ruther love Shams valume that has alot to do with human soul,even verses of blasphemous.Masnawi needs more study-background whereas Shams interduce you to the gigant mainstream of love.

This is a highly practical yet lighthearted guide for traversing the spiritual path. Liberally interlaced with Rumi's sublime poetry, Denise Breton and Christopher Largent make the transformational journey comprehensible and alluring offering the reader illuminating insights and beautiful prose. Highly recommended!

I thought I liked Rumi. After reading this tour de force by Breton/Largent, I not only appreciate Rumi, I love Rumi. This book helps us bridge appreciation of Rumi as an artist and spiritual master, and actually apply his perceptions to our own lives in a practical, accessible way. I now read Rumi completely freshly. In fact, Breton and Largent's explanations of Rumi's poetry contain so much wisdom that even without the poetry as a bonus, I would have gotten more than my money's worth. This is the one that is on my bedstand!

Quilty as Charged by Spike Gillespie is an intriguing look into the world of competitive quilt making. Quilt makers have come far from the grandmotherly types society expects. From art quilts with messages about poverty in the world, to Victorian crazy quilts, Gillespie interviews and views a wide variety of quilts and their makers, even some men! Gillespie has a wonderful voice for story-telling, but sometimes in allowing her interview subjects to speak without editing them, the stories ramble. Some pictures of the quilts are in black and white and others are in color, however, rather than use different pictures for each section, sometimes pictures are repeated. I would have enjoyed seeing far more quilts in this book, but I definitely enjoyed reading about their creation.

I loved this book. I'm a novice quilter and I learned a lot about the history of quilting and what's going on in the quilting world today. It's a suprisingly fascinating subject and Gillespie handles it wonderfully. I'd recommend it to both novice and experienced quilters alike. You don't even have to be a quilter to appreciate this fun, terrific book.

This is a fun book to read. You don't have to read the book from beginning to end...you can jump around. I loved reading all of the quotes that she has included through the chapters of her book.

A wonderful book about Cape Breaton. As a "mainlander" I have gained a new respect for this beautiful island. It's not just a travel story, it's a story of a group of amazingly strong people.

If you want to understand the people of Cape Breton and why they are different from all other Canadians, this is your book!

Sailing around the entire Island in a home made boat, Cameron encounters people from all walks of Cape Breton life: farmers, fishermen, loggers, miners, Micmac Indians, politicians, journalists and many more. Every one has a tale to tell. All enlightening, many very funny and many heart-tugging. Hard to find, but worth it! (I had to go to Baddeck to get it!)

Anyone who enjoys sailing, geography, nature and down-to-earth people will enjoy this book. I have never been to Nova-Scotia and, yet, after reading this book, I feel I can smell the scent of the air over there, I can picture the numerous coves strewn along its rugged shoreline and, best of all, I get this sense of having been there and having met its inhabitants. A truely magical book

After centuries of wars between France and England we have finally arrived in an era that the two countries seem to coexist in peace. That does not mean that fun cannot be had at each other's expense, and the way Uderzo and Goscinny make fun of the English in this episode is sometimes subtle, mostly gentle, and always hilarious. The more you are familiar with the pecularities of the Brits, the more laughs you'll have. Enjoy!

This is a great read for any fan of the series and for those who speak both French and English. Here is a book that would certainly lose something in translation. The characters in Britain speak French using English syntax. There are a number of good laughs to be found at English idioms translated directly into French: ("Je dis ceci est choquant." comes readily to mind). It's also nice to know that Asterix and Obelix are able to help their Breton cousins find their own magic potion in their struggles with Rome.

It is usually many reader's habit to skip a book's introduction. That should not be done with Marion Bridge. Daniel MacIvor uses his foreword to explain the evolution of this work from screenplay outline to dramatic play and back. The volume includes Marion Bridge written in two ways- for a play and for a movie. The differences and why they occur are some of the most fascinating aspects to the book. Being able to read the work in both forms is an inside look at the technique of writing for different medias, for the different ways the words will be interpreted and portrayed. All authors must know their audience even before they write, a screen or play writer must also take into account the interpretation of the words into actions.

Marion Bridge, in both forms, examines the relationships between three sisters when they get together to take care of their dying mother. The people are different in each treatment but still retain the same essence of character. Agnes is back in town reluctantly, dealing with her sisters, her mother and knowing that the daughter she, as a teenager, gave up for adoption is near by. The interplay of the female family members is clearly structured, the dialogue is crisp and to the point. The story never falls into the trap of stereotypes even though each woman is a well defined in a short piece. Although he addresses life in the midst of various dysfunctional circumstances, MacIvor allows each voice to tell its own story, to show its own heart.

It is a unique treat to get this behind the scenes look at the process of screen writing, the bones of the movie making process.

I recently discovered the plays of Daniel MacIvor, a Canadian actor-playwright I'd seen on the series "Twitch City." He has one of the most original theatrical visions I've encountered, tempered with an amazing generosity in the depiction of character. "Marion Bridge" is about three sisters--a nun, a failed actress and the one who stayed in their small-town home--coming together to care for their dying mother. Unlike most men writing about women, he does not define the women in terms of their relationships with men, nor does he put the women at each other's throats for two acts. Instead, they react like real family members. Sometimes they work together; sometimes they fight. And it's always little things that mark the transition from one stage to another.

I've taken scenes from this play to some acting workshops and all involved have been very impressed with the flow of the dialogue and the effective, totally believable use of humor. I'm surprised nobody has done Mr. MacIvor's plays down here. I hope to do a production of this in the fall. Order this book. You won't be dissappointed.

This very readable and well researched book explains the daily struggles of the people who actually live in the rainforest: the Indians, the rubber tappers, the loggers, the ranchers, the miners, and the river people. The author traveled across the vast Amazon areas to talk with the forest people and hear their stories. This book is very moving because it offers a real insight into the lives of the people that are suffering them most from the destruction of the rainforest. That the forest peoples trusted Ms. Lebreton is wonderful, and the stories they share are truly fascinating. Kudos to LeBreton for making the somewhat dangerous trek across the country of Brazil so that readers could have an accurate and honest view of the problems that plague the area.

This book does a fine job of letting the ordinary men & women of Brazilian Amazonia speak for themselves. While it does not have the analytical or scholarly depth of some other books on the subject (e.g. Hecht & Cockburn's "Fate of the Forest"), its strength comes from the author's ability to listen to the people she meets. For both the general public & college undergraduates, it is a handy & accessible introduction to issues of environment & development in Latin America. It definitely stimulated discussions in my course on Global Environmental History, & it would work equally well in courses on Modern Latin America.

Well written and interesting book about a family's difficult life - but certainly not something you want to read to lift your spirits or give you any inspiration. One bad thing after another and the only message for the reader is "life is tough" and then you die......

The MacDonald clan may have arrived in Cape Breton more than two centuries ago but their hearts are still firmly anchored in the Scotland from which they came. Their family history has been so religiously passed from one generation to the next that Calum MacDonald, who brought his family to Canada in 1779, seems as alive to its members as the brother or cousin sitting next to them at the dinner table.

For more than two hundred years the MacDonalds have made their livings with their hands and their backs, working as farmers, lumberjacks, lighthouse caretakers, and uranium miners, never afraid to take on the toughest or most dangerous jobs available to them. But no matter how difficult life at times got for some of them, the family always took care of its own and none of them ever forgot that they were part of the MacDonald clan. Their family loyalty was a fierce one and it was never questioned.

No Great Mischief is largely told in flashback form by its narrator, Alexander MacDonald, a successful orthodontist who as the book begins is in Toronto checking on his alcoholic brother, Calum, who seems to be slowly drinking himself to death. Alexander's visits to Toronto involve sharing old memories with his brother and leaving a little cash and alcohol behind to help Calum make it through the rest of his week. How Calum has reached his dreadful condition is a long, sad story but it is only one part of the MacDonald family saga.

No Great Mischief is a combination of historical fiction and family saga and it is a bit unusual in the sense that it focuses only on the MacDonalds who originally came to Canada and on those living there at the moment, with very little being told of the generations connecting them. But what a story it is because Alistair MacLeod has filled it with characters and incidents that will be long remembered by his readers.

The present day MacDonalds are held together by the narrator's grandparents, two grandfathers and a grandmother, three people who despite their differences share a deep and loving respect for each other. The grandfathers could hardly be more different, one being an earthy man who loves his beer and his wife, the other living alone with his books and historical research. It is these three who get the next two generations of MacDonalds through the tragedy of sudden death that comes their way over the decades.

The MacDonalds are not a family that will be easily forgotten but the highlight of the book is perhaps MacLeod's vivid recreation of life in the uranium mining camps of the 1960s. That unique, dangerous and insulated little world was a revelation to me, one of those places I am happy to have visited in a book and missed in the real world.

But for one flaw, I would have rated this book higher than the 4.0 rating I settled on - some of the long conversations between the narrator and his twin sister have a staged quality to them. They are packed with so much historical detail, and read more as recitation than conversation, that the reader cannot help but feel a distracting switch in tone. Luckily, this does not happen often and can be easily enough overlooked.

Alastair MacLeod's book is an stunningly well crafted and beautiful novel.

For me, the book that starts out confusing--why the characters are doing what they are today? and ends with a deep comprehension of bonds that form during a life.

This is definitely not a book for someone wanting a breezy travelogue about the pretty vacationland on Canada's East Coast. MacLeod's novel has nothing to do with the tourist experience. Instead, it is about a harsh and demanding land that shapes the characters and their relationships much as the waves carve the shore.

I'm not from Cape Breton, although I have been there 9 times and grown to love the place. The locals see MacLeod's writing as being very true to their heritage, and treasure it. His stories are often dark and quite sad. In particular his short stories (see "The Island") often leave me in tears.
This is the story of some lives, tough lives in remarkable places from Cape Breton to western Canadian mines. In the end, if you are like me (and several of my friends), you will understand the brothers' bond, and applaud the extraordinary skill and beauty with which the author has told this story.

To me personaly this is one of the most beautifully written, moving novels ever written. As I fnished it, I thought i had never read anything better. A set of three-year old twins lose their parents and one older brother; they are raised by their grandparents and never recover from the sense of loss. Their three much older brothers grow up half-wild and become uranium miners in the North of Canada.

After college, the boy twin, one of many Alexanders in the family, join the brothers in the mines one summer, basically out of guilt for never having shared their rough lives. Tragedy ensues and the oldest brother, the leader of the clan, ends up in jail.

Yes, there is a lot of stuff about Scottish history here and a family that seems doomed to repeat the tragedies of the past, a theme not congenial to my American students who want to think they are in charge of their own destiny. But as we read, we see that the oldest brother Calum is an old-fashioned tragic hero. Self-reliant and resourceful to a fault, the kind of guy you would want at your side to get out alive of Iraq, he is ultimately brought down by his refusal to live by the codes of modern polite society. The triumph of this novel is that by the end the reader has come to care deeply for a character who in real life most of us would probably cross the street to avoid. I truly felt enlarged by this novel and its generous and noble vision of some people who haven't quite caught up with the modern world. Beautifully written too.

I picked up Alistair MacLeod's No Great Mischief on the advice of one of my reading buddies (and you can never have enough of those!). I have never heard of MacLeod and when looking for more of his work, I was surprised to find that this Canadian is one of his country's most distinguished writers, although he has only two collections of short stories to his credit.

Weaving the past and the present, No Great Mischief is a tale of family. There are three plot lines in this intricate, yet highly readable novel. In current day, Alexander MacDonald is a successful orthodontist who often has trouble with why people pay him so much to make them pretty. He is trying to care for his oldest brother, Calum, a dying alcoholic who fascinates and repels him.

The second plot line is about Alexander's childhood. Taking place in Cape Breton, Alexander and his twin sister are raised by their paternal grandparents when their parents and one of their older brothers, Colin, falls through the ice as they make their way from the Cape to the lighthouse island where they live. Their three older brothers, now on their own, become loggers and miners in places around the world. They always go together and work side-by-side until one of them is sent to jail for murder.

And the predominate, yet most subtle, plot line is the coming of the MacDonalds to Canada. From the Scottish Highlands, the Calum Rudah (the red-haired clan) weathers a nasty and ill-fated trip across the ocean.

The story is almost, but miraculously not, confusing as different generations of MacDonalds are named "Alexander." However, that is one of the strengths of MacLeod's writing. It has the ability to weave in and out and flash back and forth, all the while never losing the reader.

At the heart of this novel, is family and loyalty. When the Calum Rudah leave Scotland, they try to leave their dog behind, but the dogs swims behind them until they can no longer risk her drowning and pull her into the boat. That image ignites the heart of the novel, as one of the dog's descendants waits for Alexander's parents to return to the lighthouse island in a show of loyalty.

Armchair Interview says: A 5-star offering from Alistair MacLeod.