Collins Books

Ms. Lady Henrietta's books are always great. There are many interior designers who write books to put on the market.....but I haven't yet seen anyone who consistently puts out wonderful books like she does. They are the best!! I am a sold sucker on her books. I feared that since she has so many decorating books out there, that they would do nothing but repeat themselves. But was I ever wrong?!! Always comprehensive, detailed, yet never over the top. Her books are always easy to understand. The royal lineage of her family surely puts her in a super huge advantage in that she is always around the beauty in the country homes of England's countryside of Oxfordshire and surrounding areas. I am planning to get each and every book she has written to include in my design library. They are great inspirators.
You will never go wrong with her books. :-)

A wonderful reference guide to fabrics AND a top notch coffee table book! Even your guests who find nothing appealing about textiles will find this book just divine! Pour a glass of Merlot and relax with this wonderful "picture book". The text is excellent too if you are in the mood for details...

Priced at a bargin. excellent text, lovely photos. Highly recommend

I own the Third Edition of the Collins Cobuild Dictionary. It gives such simple to understand explainations, verses definitions. It explains how you would use the word. It is great if does not contain all the definitions possible, but is a great resource for hard to understand definitions.

Then you must own this dictionary. It helped my 12 year old son immensely. With the help of this dictionary, he actually understood the vocabulary words he was assigned, could use them correctly in sentences as well as in converstation. Sorry Websters, this is a friendly, usable dictionary for students of all ages.

PROS

- Each word entry has an example. It is drawn from Collins' bank of English with 2.5 billions of real Englis words. This help the readers to use the word in natural expression and grammatically correct. So far, it's the only dictionary that offers this useful feature. It has saved me from hours of frustration while writing technical documents and
correspondence.

- You get two dictionaries for the price of one! It comes with a Dictionary CD rom containing the printed copy of the dictionary TOGETHER WITH pronunciation and 5 millions words of real English. This means you can look up the words, pronunciation and examples very
quickly. This is a unique offer.

- It is well organized. Each word entry is printed in blue. Its definition is in black.

- The price is unbeatable for such a good and comprehensive dictionary.

CONS

- Once in a while, there is a word with unclear definition or not listed. At that time I have to consult another dictionary. But after that I have to come back to Collins dictionary for examples.

- The paper back copy probably won't last long if you're using it a lot. It's better to buy the hard cover.

To sum up, this is the BEST that YOUR MONEY CAN GET. I wish I had it while I was in school. It would have helped me understand my lessons quicker. Every high school and college student should have one copy.

Ms Champ did a great job on this book. The blurb states that she is collecting items for Vol II. This is wrong. Volume II has been released and she is collecting for Vol III. Please contact her for more information.

An excellant work for any of those who may have descendents from early Collin County,Texas. Minnie Champ deserves great recognition for spending countless hours to insure that our ancestors and their stories are not forgotten.

As author/publisher of this book done in memory of my mother, Alice Ellison Pitts, who started the book, I'd like you to know its contents. The family stories written by descendants of Collin County early settlers are personal, varied and contain an abundance of Collin County history. The book, 9"x12," contains 548 different family stories in alpha order, has full surname index, and also has over 350 family photographs.

Volume II of this work is under production and a call for materials is out. You are invited to submit your Collin Co. related stories.

Other books available for purchase on Collin County. Email for info

PROS

- Each word entry has an example. It is drawn from Collins' bank of English with 2.5

billions of real Englis words. This help the readers to use the word in natural expression

and grammatically correct. So far, it's the only dictionary that offers this useful feature.

It has saved me from hours of frustration while writing technical documents and

correspondence.

- You get two dictionaries for the price of one! It comes with a Dictionary CD rom

containing the printed copy of the dictionary TOGETHER WITH pronunciation and 5 millions

words of real English. This means you can look up the words, pronunciation and examples very

quickly. This is a unique offer.

- It is well organized. Each word entry is printed in blue. Its definition is in black.

- The price is unbeatable for such a good and comprehensive dictionary.

CONS

Once in a while, there is a word with unclear definition. At that time I have to consult

another dictionary. But after that I have to come back to Collins dictionary for examples.

To sum up, this is the BEST that YOUR MONEY CAN GET. I wish I had it while I was in school.

It would have helped me understand my lessons quicker. Every high school and college student

should have one copy.

I owned a copy of an old edition and it is because I remembered how good that one was that I eventually purchased this one, which is even better.

Aside from what other reviewers have pointed out, I find this to be the perfect tool for people with ADHD and the reasons are:
1) it gives example of real English, allowing you to pick up patterns
2) it tells you not just which kind of word you are reading (adj, verb, noun, etc) but also the general meaning that specific word is used for (ie: disapproval, expression of feelings, emphasis, etc)
3) it lets you know whenever an equivalent (or similar) phrasal verb exists to mean the same thing
4) it highlights the difference in pronunciation whenever a given word can be used both as a noun and as a verb
5) it lists all the idiom a particular word is used in
6) at the end there is a blue section called "access to English" with a long subsection on how to write an essay
7) words can have one, two or three diamonds depending on how vital it is that you learn their meaning (1 being you MUST know them, 2 being you should know them, 3 being you will sound great if you learn it)

What else can I say? This dictionary just ROCKS!

I teach ESL to adults and this dictionary is the best! It defines words and phrases in complete sentences, indicates which words are the most used, and distinguishes between American and British English, which helps when someone learned English in Europe. I highly recommend it for both students and teachers. (But get the hardcover; you'll quickly wear out the paperback!)

This listing describes the third edition of the COLLINS GEM GERMAN DICTIONARY, German-English and English-German. It is based on a first edition published in 1978, and so remains fairly contemporary.

The dictionary is quite large. I've used it for a decade now and have encountered few limitations. It has over 40,000 references and 70,000 translations and defines words not only in the standard definition but also in common idiomatic contexts. Certain German words are boxed as "key words", lexical items that are an especially common part of idioms and should be carefully learned. An appendix lists the numbers in German and English and explains how they are used in telling time. What makes this dictionary very nice for the student is that the pronunciation of each German word is given in phonetic transcription (IPA). The spellings given are those from before the failed 1996 spelling reform, and so will faithfully reflect usages in contemporary German media unlike some later dictionaries that hastily adopted the reforms.

The paper of my copy has yellowed, but has not become brittle, and the vinyl cover has proven quite durable. All in all, this is an excellent pocket dictionary I would highly recommend. It's well represented on the used market, so it can be had economically.

Nice, Compact, useful words for traveling in and around Europe!

The Collins Gem Language dictionaries are extremely convenient to use, even with one hand! Because of their size and ease of use, they are non-disruptive if one forgets or needs a word in conversations. Using this dictionary, beginning through advanced level students can read modern newspaper articles and liturature. The entries are correct and usually always give a variety of correct pronouns for use with verbs in idomatic cases. As a German teacher, I recommend the Collins Gem German Dictionary above Langenscheidt's. It is smaller and more convenient, less expensive, and the entries are more correct and easier to read.

I can't say enough about this book. It doesn't matter if you are experianced or have never touched a pastel before, everyone can gain something from this wonderful book. Not only does she lay out the different materials and papers, she touches on just about everything such as color theory, perspective and composition. This is so much more than just a book on pastels. Beyond all the useful info, the pictures are just so inspiring and beautiful to look at. If you only buy one pastel book, let it be this one.

A practical and comprehensive instruction pastel workbook. Nicely laid out and easy on the eye too. The author has in mind the beginner who also needs encouragement to paint as well as adding ideas about creativity to the work not just frontal art instruction and just techniques. Definately a new generation of instruction where development of ideas, creativity, inspiration, confidence building, self assesment, demonstrations are all integrated. I also enjoyed looking at the examples used to instruct pastel painting and these were very varied giving a wide idea about what can be done with pastels. I really recomend this book for the beginner pastel artist as well as an art instructor who wants to develop an art workshop and needs some ideas. Jason Alster- author-
Creative Painting For The Young Artist

This is an excellent book to learn pastels with. The author begins by explaining that the purpose of her book is to "encourage you to learn by doing, just as you would in a practical painting workshop." It is filled with exercises and projects. Most of the chapters contain one main project along with several exercises.

The book begins with the usual materials and set-up chapter and then goes on to teaching techniques-ex: blending, stippling, gradations,layering, broken color, pastel over gouche, pastel over watercolor, pastel w/ charcoal, then gives a project to practice using the pastels followed by a self-assessment.

I will briefly describe some of the chapters and what they cover:
Understanding tone with simple exercises (lots of pictures too) on drawing fruits followed by a step-by-step demonstration on Fruit Tonal Study and another demo on Learning to See and Draw Tone.

Use of Colour--very well explained--everything from definitions to how complementary colors are used, to temperatures, colour harmony, colour retlationships, psychology of color. The demonstration that follows is quite thought-provoking, involving creating a collage out of black and white paper arrangements, and then making three color interpretations from it using: harmonious color, a primary color and it's complementary, an arrangement of warm and cool colors.

Space and Perspective: Teaching different types of perspective and how to measure, perspective construction, followed by a project of evaluating different perspectives (excellent exercises not covered in most art instruction books I have seen--this book will definitely make you a better artist.

Compostition. This chapter covers the elements of designing a strong painting (well taught), followed by project of exploring composition by analyzing other art for the elements discussed.

Sketching.
Choosing A Subject.
Still Life. Composing a still life, lighting, drawing, relating objects, negative shapes, massing forms and mastering edges, painting pattern, followed by a project on Still Life of Bread and Rolls and then a self-assessment. Flowers in Still life, with a good simplification of understanding structure of flowers and perspective and proportion when drawing flowers. The step-by-step demonstration on painting Hydrangeas, Apples and Grapes becomes more exciting--building on skills learned from previous chapters and explaining how the author adds vertical and horizontal lines to "help the structure and placement". There is another still life flower project, but not step-by-step, in which the author leaves the artist to decide the exact subject matter and arrangement as a teaching tool.

Gardens. How to simplify what you see, where to begin, followed by a step-by-step demo of a Summertime Garden, along with a lesson on color harmony, foliage and such issues as color hue and temperature and rhythms created by plants, characteristic shapes, etc. A guided project of painting a garden, with concentration on two aspects of painting a garden scene: 1. planning, making thumbnail sketches, with a checklist of such things as making sure you have a focal point, direction of light, etc.., 2. simplifying the scene, followed by self-assessment.

Landscapes. The author has a unique way of teaching the student how to determine what the emphasis of the landscape painting will be, without just diving in without thought, explaining about "a sense of place", cloud and sky perspective, time of day, colour, etc., followed by a stepped demo on "Light, Clouds and Rain". There are several other lessons concerning creating a sense of place, including people, seascapes, etc.

I found this book to be one of the best pastel lesson books I have seen. This book is useful not only to learn pastels, but also for building basic art skills and learning to see with an artists eye. I highly recommend this book.

Anyone taking college French will improve their grades by using this book. It's that good and helpful.

This dictionary is a must have for the serious French student. As a French major it was indispensable, containing idioms and indicating slang where other dictionaries fall short. Like the previous reviewer, I found it dependable in a French-only program, mine at Universite Laval in Quebec. It was originally recommended to me by a French professor.

I realize that this dictionary is expensive, but it's probably the best assest you can have for your french efforts. Each word is analyzed in context of certain sentences, so if you've seen a word used a certain way, it's very, very easy to find a translation. I used this dictionary the entire way through a 7-week no-english-allowed study in France, and I never had a single false quotation.

I think that another asset is the dictionary's liberal eye towards slang, rated in terms of familiarity/vulgarity, which is entirely unavoidable when you're using the language in a French-speaking country. There is also a center section full of extremely useful phrases rated once more in terms of formality. This version has more than 550,000 translations; I think you get what you pay for in the price.

The only knocks I could give this is that there is no distinction between Quebecois and native French; certain examples: "gosses" is only given as an informal way to say "kids," however, the word's usage in Quebec means "testicles." The dictionary does succeed, however, in differentiating between British English and American English.

Publisher Comments:
It's now the best buy in paperback on a crowded shelf! HarperCollins Concise Dictionaries carry on the tradition of our strong-selling bilinguals, which have earned a reputation as the easiest to use, most consistently updated, and most reliable authorities on slang, technological, political, and business terms. Easy to carry and painlessly priced, they're perfect for college or advanced high school language students.
-- A comprehensive dictionary and grammar reference in one.
-- The keyword feature gives students extra help in translating the most essential vocabulary words.
-- Special entries throughout the text illuminate aspects of a given country's life and culture.

Arguably the best, most modern and complete Russian dictionary available. It's pretty thick, so fitting it in a brief case or backpack might take some effort.

There is one potential problem: In the Russian section, the individual letter sub-sections has a header in big ITALICIZED upper- and lower-case letters that look nothing like their non-italicized equivalents. Take, for example, the Russian letter T. A lower-case T does not look like our "t," but rather like the original "T," only smaller. But the ITALICIZED lower-case T doesn't look like "T," but rather like "m." I hope I'm not confusing you; it's just something to look out for.

If you have a chance to browse through a dictionary before buying it, please do so. Make sure it contains all the vocabulary you'll need, and that the word entries are presented as concisely and attractively as you wish. That said, I feel this Russian dictionary lives up to those requirements.

My wife is Russian. I had searched for a good dictionary and was appalled by the translation of a few test words. The deciding factor in getting this one was the word "funny". Oxford and the others had it as "to make fun of". This dictionary had that and the funny that means "what makes you laugh". When ever we need to find what an English word means in Russian, or my wife does not know what the English word is for her Russian word, we go to this book. A great buy.

This is an excellent book written with a child's perspective. As adults, we sometimes lose that. It's my child's favorite book. It was easy for him to understand, and helps him to know he's not alone in the world.

I run HIV/AIDS Education workshops for my Girl Scout Council. This book is part of the Daisy (Kindergarten) program. The girls love the story and the illustrations. The Leaders are impressed with the sensitivity in dealing with the subject of HIV and the very young.

A child and his parents learn to deal with the discrimination faced by the boy's new friend and classmate who has AIDS. The story is well-written; the illustrations are colourful and appealing. A good read!

This has already been mentioned by other reviewers. There are plenty of melodramatic elements in this volume. Junior being reunited with his mother, the blinding of a cashier at Junior's mother's lunch counter, Pat Patton giving Tracy a blood transfusion to save his life and the conversion of a hoodlum. That about covers this volume and once again, I couldn't put it down and I look forward to beginning volume four!

In this latest chunk of Gould-plated detective action, the fantastic still takes a decided back seat to the mundane -- not to mention the intensely melodramatic. Junior Tracy is reunited with his mother, Mary Steele. Tracy nearly dies in the course of a ghastly shoot-out that rubs out gangster "Cut" Famon and his gang. Dick takes it upon himself to convert a former hoodlum, "Lips" Manlis, to the side of good. A naive cashier and her gambling-addicted boy friend suffer dramatic payback for their sins -- a hair-raising stay in a women's prison followed by temporary blindness in her case, the "big sleep" in his. Similarly soap-operatic stuff would always be a part of Tracy's universe, of course, but with the legendary grotesque villains still some years away, these melodramatic sequences seem all the more potent somehow.

Max Allan Collins correctly points out in his introduction how Gould continued to draw story lines from contemporary headlines during this period. Boris Arson -- who started out as a vaguely sinister Lenin look-and-act-alike before eventually being reduced to the standard strong-armed thuggery -- bluffs his way out of prison with an iodine-dyed potato gun, in an homage to John Dillinger's escape from a small-town jail. Boris' sister, Zora, is a Bonnie Parker wannabe (with the extra touch of men's clothing suggesting lesbianism). Famon, who'd been sent to an Alcatraz-style rockpile for income-tax evasion, is obviously modeled on the late-period Al Capone. Gould also dips heavily into the stock ethnic stereotypes of the period, with mixed results. The amiable Indian Chief Yellowpony is a major -- and worthy -- player in the caper that brings the Arson duo to justice, and bit appearances by a Jewish peddler and Italian coffee-shop attendant are perfectly fine by me, but "darkie" valet Memphis is, as Collins admits, pretty embarrassing even by the standards of the day.

My favorite story arc in this volume is "The Hotel Murders," which I'd originally read in a paperback collection. This 1936 continuity is more of a "true" mystery than the typical Tracy yarn, with Tracy and the cops baffled by a disappearing bullet that's killed a high-rolling confidence man. Alas, Gould makes an unfortunate continuity goof, actually introducing the killer as a poor pencil-peddler BEFORE we learn that he's really a retired manufacturer! Still, I do like the story, not to mention the fact that the guilty party merits at least some sympathy for being one of the con man's victims.

The ancillary material's already getting a bit thin after just three volumes -- a brief piece by the inevitable Collins and an equally short article on Tracy's various appearances in Big Little Books. Not a good sign. Still, it's more than readers have gotten in the last several volumes of THE COMPLETE PEANUTS.

A great comic strip that holds up beautifully. Once you start you are hooked. There is a major drawback, though.

The sundays are almost impossible to read as they are cruelly reduced in size. An owl would have trouble. You must somehow enlarge them to appreciate them.

Still, a 5 star book as are all Tracy books. And most of the great stories - and villains - are on the horizon in volumes 4 and 5.

This is the Golden Age of early (pre 1940) comic strips. Also highly recommended are...
Terry and the Pirates
Little Orphan Annie
Krazy Kat
Gasoline Alley - possibly the greatest comic strip
Moon Mullins - published by a small publisher but worth the trouble

Hopefully we may soon see The Gumps, Ella Cinders, Bringing Up Father, Polly and Her Pals and Barney Google.