E Books

J.E. Gordon's book should be required reading for all engineering students as well as working engineers. It' s surprising how many have either not learned nor not appreciated the wisdom in this little book. This work has led to the development of composite materials and provided many insights that I rediscover each time that I read it. Philip Ball's new introduction is also very welcome.

I am a scientist, but not an engineer. Equations are not my forté. This book gives a great intuitive understanding of materials science, but goes beyond that to tell us how simple structures work. It's filled with great anecdotes and carries it all off with a sense of humor. I discovered it many years ago, and I'm reading it for the 3rd time just for the pleasure.

Good text for fracture mechanics enthusiasts- material failure, strength of materials.
Good reading, if you are an engineer, scientist, or not. Great examples. Dry british writing, but if you can get through it and the silly jokes, you can learn a lot.

Reading this before embarking on university studies was an inspiration and I still come back to it now, it has a lot to offer all ages and disciplines.

This book is part of the Princeton Science Library, the best collection of books on mathematics and science for the intelligent layman. Like other books in that series, it is succinct and clearly written. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. All of the positive reader reviews are right on.

Because I liked it so much, I purchased "Structures," also by Professor Gordon. As it turned out, that book covers the same material, but in greater breadth and depth, and with more illustrations. There's much to be said for reading both books, but if you're only going to read one, "Structures" is the one.

Mark Rogers writes a heady mix of sword/sorcery, .... and political machinations unlike anything I've found in decades of reading. In Hollywood high-concept parlance, you could say Karl Edward Wagner's Kane meets Machiavelli in the Kama Sutra, mixed with odd religious overtones. I have several of Mark's paintings hanging in my house and they ooze the same tension of .... freedom and impending violence that his writing puts into more specific terms. Other reviews on this page will give more of a plot line; I just want to recommend for the stout of heart, that this is a series worth reading. I only give it four stars because you do need to read the first two books to fully enjoy the ride. Nicely demented!!

To have gotten to this book you hopefully will have read "Blood & Pearls", and "Jagutai & Lilitu" before hand. This book continues where they left off and is the exciting end of the Zancharthus series.

Mark E. Rogers has a style of his own. It blends Dark Fantasy, Horror, and Erotica all into a single hot firebrand of a style. His writing is not for the faint of heart or those easily offended. When he describes love. He does it well. However, when he describes EVIL, INSANITY, LUST, and many other potentially dark emotions he does them exceedingly well. Why? Simply, because he holds nothing back in writing and it is obvious when you read his books that he has a vivid imagination when it comes to describing these things. Some scenes are so vivid it will leave you wondering if he was sitting over in the corner of a room watching the lustful scenes unfold and jotting down notes on a sheet of paper. Seriously, he is VERY good at describing these things.

This book culminates with the scene that starts Zorachus. Zorachus is Zancharthus son and Mark actually wrote Zorachus first. Zorachus is one of my all time favorite books. So, of course I simply had to read the rest.

If you liked the first two books in this series then this book will captivate you just as much and will leave you wondering where you just were when you get done with the book.

So, treat yourself to a good book.

One note these books are intended for a mature audience. I would consider them an NC-17 rating if I were in charge of rating. So, with that in mind. Get ready for a great book!!

Veteran story-teller Mark E. Rogers hits the bullseye again in this Khymerian novel. The book includes black magic, political intrigue, spiders the size of the Titanic (hungry too!), and finally redemption! How could you not like this book? If you've read his other Khymerian novels then you owe it to yourself to find this one with all dispatch and curl up for a good read. One caveat, as a dad, don't leave the book lying in a place the youngsters can pick it up!

It made me cry. And there's a giant spider big enough to capture entire ships. (Sorry, I just finished reading it and am too emotionally wrung-out to go into much detail.^_^)

This is the way a fantasy novel should be. This book pulls no punches and delivers a healthy dose of magic, violence, sex, and even a little humor as well. This is the third book of the Zancharthus series. It is also in my opinion the best of the series. Events from the previous books all play a role in developing the story. They also help to develop the characters and it is very enjoyable to follow their progression over the three books.

This book is intended for graduate students of English who might need to acquire a reading knowledge of Old English for their studies, but who are not necessarily knowledgeable in Indo-European linguistics or familiar with archaic, highly inflected languages.

The author begins with a simplified but fairly comprehensive grammar of Old English which runs about 40 pages, and covers pronunciation; an explanation of gender, number, and case(s); the forms of the definite and relative articles; strong and weak verbs; adjectives; nouns; additional sections dealing with more advanced declensions/conjugations of nouns and verbs; and i-umlaut.

I read the grammar several times initially, and returned to re-read several times as I progressed through the readings, to review some of the concepts. As an earlier reviewer noted, you don't want to rush through the introductory grammar in your haste to get to the Old English texts; only confusion and frustration will ensue.

I should note in respect to pronunciation that Prof. Diamond uses distinctive symbols to denote palatalized C and G, which allows the beginner to avoid having to check the rules constantly to determine if a given C or G needs to be palatized in its environment within a word. This allows the student to pronounce Old English with confidence from the beginning, and I found that I quickly internalized the use of palatalized C and G using this method.

The readings are interesting and challenging. They are printed with Old English on the left- and Modern English on the right-hand page, allowing the student to plunge right into reading Old English without memorizing long vocabulary lists, with minimal flipping back to the glossary. The readings are graded, increasing in complexity of grammar and vocabulary as one progresses, and also incorporate fewer word-for-word translations as the student is guided into Old English poetry; this makes the student work harder on translations as he/she advances through the readings, and prevents excessive reliance on the Modern English.

There is a full glossary in the back, which includes all divergent verb and noun forms for the student's convenience. For example, it lists "seoles", the genitive singular of "seolh"; and "slog", the preterite singular of "slean". For a beginner, these situations might otherwise be nightmarish, trying to feverishly determine the infinitive of the verb or nominative singular of the noun, sufficient to look it up and find its meaning.

This book fulfilled my fondest hopes, allowing me to gain a reading knowledge and proper pronunciation of Old English in a relatively short period of time, and I highly recommend it.

This is the first Old English grammar I studied, nearly 25 years ago, and it remains perhaps the best one-volume introduction to Old English around. Concise, simple, and accessible, this text has both a reader and a grammar in one cover, containing selections from the major Old English poems and prose works.

The prose works include 'The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan', selections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the preface by Alfred the Great to the medieval work on Pastoral Care by Pope Gregory. There are relatively few Old English prose works that have survived into the present day; there are even fewer authentically Old English pieces, as many Old English prose works are in fact translations of Latin pieces, and for some reason adapted their grammar to the Latin original rather than the Old English natural pattern.

The poetry exhibits the paired-verse pattern (although the translations accompanying them do not strive to keep the metrical pattern). The poetry include majors works such as Caedmon's Hymn, The Battle of Brunanburg, The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, maxims, riddles, and other poems. There is no Beowulf contained here, nor any other heroic poems (such as Deor), as Diamond states that these are the most likely follow-up readings after one gains a grounding in Old English, and the poems contained here are often overlooked by students save for the most dedicated of scholars.

The texts here are normalised to Early West Saxon dialect, with a grammar very simplified; concepts are introduced that are directly useful for the texts contained herein. The glossary is similarly normalised, and cross-referenced for various verb forms and other vocabulary links such as prefixes and alternatives. In a remarkable insight on how students use texts, Diamond states that, for the purposes of this introductory text, notes have been eliminated, as students rarely refer to them anyway. The section on metrics introduces the five principle types of verses, as well as some minor variations.

Diamond includes a brief bibliography with dictionaries, grammars, commentaries and more; this is now somewhat out of date, but also shows the slow pace at which some aspects of Old English scholarship proceed, with references going back to volumes published in the late 1800s.

A very useful and fun text from which to learn!

I bought both Prof. Diamond's Old English Grammar and Prof. Baker's Introduction to Old English after checking them out from my local library. They are both excellent works, but I prefer Prof. Diamond's book for a couple of reasons.

First, although trivial, I have learned other inflected languages such as Greek and Latin and they always present noun declensions for the various cases in the following order: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, etc. Prof. Diamond presents noun declensions in the same way while Prof. Baker's book presents them in the order nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, etc. It throws me off just enough to be irritating when I am trying to memorize the case endings.

Second, as mentioned in other reviews, Prof. Diamond presents translations with each text. This makes it possible to learn a few words and them jump straight into the texts without having to guess whether or not you understood the various pieces.

Prof. Baker's book has its merits such as its companion website and its more detailed discussion of grammar, but I would recommend starting to learn Old English with Prof. Diamond's book.

One more point - if you are considering buying both keep in mind that many of the literary samples in both overlap so if you buy Prof. Baker's book you should buy it because you want a better understanding of grammar not because you want more samples of Old English.

I was lucky enough to take Old English, Old Norse and Beowulf in old English from Dr. Diamond at the University of Nevada, Reno. What a wonderful teacher... His book was a wonderful introduction to Old English.

A must for all Asatru Folk who need to learn Old English. The smart idea the writer has is to skip the Latin transations and to only use poems written in Old English, this way you learn the words as well as the grammer. Wyatt Kaldenberg

This is an excellent book. I first read it 10 or more years ago. My copy is now marked over, underlined, written in and I keep returning to it like an old friend. It is next to my bed and next to my bible, my favorite book. He is an outstanding writer. The book is for believers and nonbelievers. His section on the cross of Christ is one that inspires me each time I read it "The cross of Christ....becomes an appeal to renounce a life steeped in selfishness....It means a brave life, undertaken by innumberable people, without fear even in the face of fatal risks, through struggle, suffering, death, in firm trust and hope in the goal of true freedom, love, humanity, eternal life. The offense, the sheer scandal, was turned into an amazing experience of salvation, the way of the cross into a possible way of life"
Read it. You will enjoy it.

Hans Kung writes as one thoroughly committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, unlike some Christian writers, Kung writes with an intellectual depth and honesty that is refreshing. Kung does not shy away from bringing the Christian message into a living dialogue with modern scholarship, the other world religions, and the real challenges facing the human race today. I take issue with his sometimes-unconditional acceptance of higher Biblical criticism. However, as a Christian, I contend that Kung provides a true, relevant, and comprehensive analysis of the Christian faith for our time. A must-read for any serious theologian!

In my 42-year career as a scientist I scarcely had time for religious education, meditation and inspiration. In my so-far 12 years of retirement I have been led to broadening my knowledge and appreciation of religion -- man's attempt to find spiritual meaning in the universe, a universe whose physical side man has so successfully investigated and revealed through science

The figure of Jesus has always been of utmost interest to me, particularly his human side -- and now of late, his spiritual significance. Jesus is without a doubt the most influential person who ever lived in Western society, witness the countless buildings and institutions that exist today in his wake. And yet it is extremely difficult to separate the mythical from the factual aspects of his life and death. This is where this book and a previous one I reviewed, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" by mathematical physicist John Davidson, have come to my sorely-needed rescue.

Kung's book is a thorough, brilliant, and ultimately convincing attempt to get at the heart of the motivation and end result of Jesus' short life on earth. I was led to Kung by a sermon I heard a number of years ago at a Unitarian Church in Ft. Collins, CO in which an excerpt from Kung's book described the difference between the end of Jesus' life and the deaths of other religious leaders. That sermon was powerful to me then, and still speaks to me today. It pointed out with Kung that whereas others died in old age, surrounded by their disciples and wives after satisfactorily accomplishing their mission, Jesus' early death was stark, brutal, and utterly cheerless. He was tortured, deserted by his followers -- seemingly even deserted by the personal God of whom he so ardently and sincerely spoke. Is this seeming abandonment at a young age by man and God the ultimate source of his meaning to mankind?

A respected Catholic theologian, Kung is unremittingly honest in his attempt to get at the truth of the times. In contrast to Schweitzer's somewhat impersonal theological style in "A Quest for the Historical Jesus", Kung's style results in a much more human narrative, drawing you convincingly into the times and mind of Jesus. The book is almost equally divided into two parts, half before and half after the death of Jesus. I must admit that I have read only the first half; the revelation of the meaning of Jesus' life is yet to be given by Kung. But even at this point I cannot resist encouraging others to pick up this amazingly insightful and thoughtful volume -- to peruse it, to underline and to savor it.

Man has learned to fathom many of the secrets of the universe, but they are limited to its non-spiritual aspects. This knowledge can lead either to exaltation and benefit from man's influence on earth, or to our death and destruction. The ultimate outcome of our reign on earth will be determined by spiritual aspects of our search for knowledge that so far, and maybe even in the long run, are inaccessible to science. They are immensely important to understand; this search is urgent for all to participate in. Kung's book, as well as Davidson's, provide significant steps to broadening our grasp of knowledge in this direction.

A friend lent me a copy, and I was so fascinated that when I had to return it I immediately bought my own copy. It is a very useful book for anyone with a serious interest in the purpose of life. 50 years ago, Hans Küng was a zealous young thologian, who, with others such as Joseph Ratzinger, or greater fame now, opened the eyes, at least temporarily, of many of the bishops at Vatican II Ecumenical Council to the vast store of truth to be found OUTSIDE the Catholic church.
His reputation as a formost theologian kept many of us away from his works, thinking they would be as difficult to follow as so many papal encyclicals.
Not so! Lucidity is his watchword, although he certainly gets prolix at times. The first time through, when he had outlined his proposed method of reasoning, I would skip through to the guts of his argument. Second time through, I'm taking it all in, as far as I can.

At 602 pages of text, ON BEING A CHRISTIAN is the definition of a tome. The style is no walk in the park: even taking into account that it's a translation from German, some of the passages are quite dense. The bottom line is, though, that it's worth the effort.

When this book first appeared in the 1970s, I hesitated to read it. Aside from the intimidating length of the work, I had the thought--if Kung is on the margins of Catholic theology, then what impact could his work have? Suffice it to say that I was neither a theologian nor a very astute young Catholic. However that may be, I was surprised to find that, except, perhaps, for matters pertaining to Church governance, Kung is hardly a leftist firebrand or a Bishop John Shelby Spong-like skeptic; Kung, essentially, is a fairly orthodox theologian, it seems to me. As a committed Catholic Christian, he's devoted, though, to scraping away the barnacles that have adhered to the mother ship of Roman Catholicism over the past two millennia.

Kung does not shy away from the difficult issues: in the course of ON BEING A CHRISTIAN, he tackles thorny issues like Karl Rahner's "Anonymous Christian" concept, the Resurrection, the Trinity, liberation theology, and a Christian's response to war, among many, many problems. I was often in awe of Kung's deft handling of these issues, but other times felt somewhat lost in the theological discourse. For instance, Kung accepts the "reality" of the Resurrection, but rejects the theological and historical necessity of the Empty Tomb. He claims that the disciples could not just have had some sort of self-realized epiphany after the death of Jesus; for the Christian movement to have taken off as it did, it must have been because the disciples of Jesus had a real experience of Jesus' resurrection. But since Kung also rejects the notion that a Christian must accept the violation of the physical laws of the universe, is he trying to have it both ways, or is it that his argument is simply beyond me? For Kung, what is *real* about the Resurrection?

Kung's root answer to what Christianity is about is given early on in the book: "Christianity exists only where the memory of Jesus Christ is activated in theory and practice" (p. 126). For Kung, Jesus is "in person the living, archetypal embodiment of his cause" (p. 545). One who accepts this Jesus in his or her life receives the call to be radically human. What ultimately counts in life is not accomplishments (not that accomplishments are bad), but trust (faith) in the Christ Jesus. In fact, Kung demonstrates from the opening section on "The Challenge of Modern Humanisms" throughout the course of this book, that the Christian as true humanist is the principle that underlies his concept of Christianity.

For a long time many people have encouraged me to read ON BEING A CHRISTIAN. I am heartily glad that I have finally followed their advice. I know that I will be returning to this book in the years ahead to revisit Kung's keen insights into what being a Christian truly means. In these days, when Christianity has been degraded and sold out as a tool of politicians, this is a book whose message should be read all the more to call us to metanoia, a change of heart.

this book really helped me with planning a friends wedding.
nothing out there like it,

The first thing you need when you get engaged is a resource guide to help you through the process of booking vendors for the big day. After subscribing to countless magazines and buying a bookshelf full of resource guides, I stumbled onto On Site Weddings. If only I had found it first. I have since stopped looking elsewhere. This is it people!! If you are getting married in So Cal, look no further. Not only is it easy to use, I am very happy with every vendor I found through the book. It's nice to know that as my wedding approaches, as least this part has been easy thanks to On Site Weddings.

This book is a must! Planning a wedding can be so stressful and this book made it 50 times easier for me. The listings are complete and up to date. Everything was right at my fingertips. It took away the busy work and guess work and allowed me to focus on planning rather than researching. I don't know what I would have done without it.

this book is sooooo helpful if you are planning a wedding! plus the beautiful design makes it a delightful object to look at while you are stressing out on your wedding plans! very organized and thorough. on site put out another winner!! thanks!

I can't express how great this book is. For anyone planning a wedding or planning to plan. Great to look at, easy to use, awesome vendors.

I laughed. I learned. I loved Open Net.

Plimpton summarizes (page 254) his experience with the Bruins to Junior Achievers in Edmonton, "I described some of my brief forays into sports as a participatory journalist, and what it was like, and how I envied the athletes their skills and the fellowship, but how I had always left their camps with a faint twinge of relief that I was returning to my own world..."

Plimpton is the vanguardist for creative-nonfiction/participatory journalism, and Open Net is the standard by which other hockey books should be measured. I envy not his weak ankles, for they're as instable as his writing is strong, but rather his wit and way of balancing humor and enlightenment.

I didn't grow up in New England, but I suspect those that have will still enjoy the way Plimpton brings back to life the boldness and brashness, the grit and the glory, of the Big Bad Bruins.

From Plimpton's interaction with the likes of "Grapes" and "Taz" and with goalies "Seaweed," and "Cheesy" to our hero's own moment in the crease, you'll want to stand up and cheer!

If you enjoy Ice Hockey, especially from a historical perspective, this is the book to read. Fans of Don Cherry will love this book.

THIS IS ONE OF PLIMPTON'S BEST. I REALLY ENJOYED HIS STORY PLAYING GOAL FOR THE BRUINS. HIS CONVERSATIONS WITH VARIOUS PLAYERS AND COACHES ARE EXCELLENT. HIS DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EVENTS MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE RIGHT THERE ON THE ICE WITH HIM. PLIMPTON DOESN'T WASTE TOO MUCH TIME DESCRIBING HIS SURROUNDINGS LIKE HE DOES IN OTHER BOOKS. HE GOES STRAIGHT TO THE POINT. SOME HIGHLIGHTS ARE DESCRIBING HOW HE PUTS HIS UNIFORM ON IN A DETAILED ORDER, OLD STORIES ABOUT EDDIE SHORE, AND HIS ACTUAL TIME ON THE ICE PLAYING GOAL DURING A COUPLE OF EXHIBITION GAMES MAKE THIS A GREAT READ.

As a big hockey fan, and a goaltender, this was just required reading. Yet, it turned out to be more. This well written, quick read was a gas to enjoy and quote. I will be glad to read others by George Plimpton, and I'm already on the hunt for PAPER LION.
I guess thats my ringing endorcement. If I'm looking to read a book on football, the author must be wonderful. Quick, funny, well written, and vastly enjoyable, you wont regret buying this book, no matter what the price.

George Plimpton once again dons a uniform and plays a game. This time he tackles hockey while training with the Boston Bruins.
Plimpton does a wonderful job of painting a realistic view of life as a goalie. He uses the voices of other players to help the story along, rather than as just filler from big names. He also tells his tale without a lot of false excitement. You can tell he totally loves the experience, yet at times, you can see the effort does drain him (naturally).
His comments about and conversations with the likes of 'Seaweed' Pettie, Garry Cheevers and Don Cheery really add a lot of depth to the book. In conversations I have had with some of these men, I clearly got the point that they enjoyed this as much as Plimpton did and as much as I did as a reader.
This is a great read for the unfulfilled athlete in all of us.

I don't typically give reviews on books, but I really felt compelled to do so for Paranoia. As somebody who wasn't sure if I had lost a loved one in the attacks (I didn't, and my heart goes out to those that did), I found the premise to be interesting. The characters seem to come to life in your mind's eye so easily that it really let's you focus on what is taking place in the story. The writing style of the author flows nicely, making the book that much easier to read.

The chapters were long enough to tell a good portion of storyline, yet short enough that you could flip ahead and say "OK, I'll read one more chapter before bed" several times before actually going to bed.

I would highly recommend this book and am looking forward to future writings from this author.

After reading the reviews for J. E. Braun's novel, I needed to see for myself it lived up to its hype. I can tell you it undeniably does. In addition to a well-crafted and intriguing storyline, the novel possesses a remarkably compelling inner dialogue. As the main character, Jim is simultaneously fragile, sardonic, insightful and oblivious. Through his multifaceted personality, we find one frank, and pleasantly wry, man's struggle to keep himself together, despite his tragic experiences. Both a round and dynamic character, Jim is relatable, likeable and humorous. As we read, we yearn for him to overcome not only the events of which he was a victim, but also his own missteps. Despite his extreme circumstances and choices, Jim comes off as someone we all could know, showing how close to the breaking point we all really are. As we root for him to overcome, we also embrace the idea that we all can overcome these tragedies. This is a riveting look at the psychology of the human mind and endurance of the human spirit!

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jim is sitting at the desk in his office, playing solitaire, bored with what has become the unchallenging routine of his job. It just so happens, though, that his office is located in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, and when he hears the unmistakable sound of an approaching jet engine, he, like the others who rush with him to the window, can never imagine the full scope of the horror they are about to experience.

Barely escaping with his life, Jim soon begins to struggle with the enormity of the events that comprised the worst terrorist attack ever waged on American soil. Understandably, the entire foundation of his well-being is shaken to the roots - an apt metaphor for the United States citizenry at large. Rather than lose his mind in a swift snap of insanity, though, Jim slowly descends into an increasingly introverted world of psychic shadow, one in which the certainty of the present yields to both the haunting spectre of the past and the instability of the future.

What follows in Paranoia, the debut novel by J.E. Braun, is a series of disjointed flashbacks to which Jim surrenders mind, body, and spirit. Each flashback highlights, in vivid detail, a defining moment in Jim's life that signifies yet another twisted turn down the inward spiral of his devolution: his escape to his aunt's remote Colorado farm; his continued efforts to rationalize the reasons for his worsening neurosis; the departure of his wife and son, who can no longer traverse the emotional distance required to connect with him. Through each subsequent "phase" of his new existence, Braun, by degrees, pulls the reader further and further into Jim's increasingly darker world, deftly intermarrying his physical reactions with the spiritual impetuses that give them life.

Ultimately, Jim yields to his self-serving paranoia, even going so far as to charge himself with the duty of tracking potential terrorists. His justification: there were people who knew and unwittingly interacted with the airline hijackers in the days leading up to the September 11th terrorist attacks, and, if they had been more vigilant, the entire tragic ordeal could have been avoided...in his patriotic haste, though, Jim fails to realize that the appearance of guilt doesn't always equate to actual culpability - and when his actions lead to the shedding of innocent blood, he is forced to ask himself who the true terrorist really is...

Paranoia is an interesting, engaging read that touches on significant topics and issues that many would prefer to avoid. Rather than serve as an incendiary call-to-arms against ideological extremes, though, it actually pulls off the opposite effect of forcing the reader to question why such action ever becomes necessary - regardless of the circumstances that spark it. Through compelling storytelling, Braun skillfully manages to engender just the sort of raw introspection that is so quickly - and needlessly - avoided in this era of obsession with all things politically correct.

I would highly recommend this novel. Aside from finding it incredibly entertaining I found it to be a poignant look at one of the most significant events of recent times. The author took an extremely sensitive topic and told an emotional and intriguing story with a great deal of grace and skill. I particularly enjoyed the interesting style in which the author intertwined multiple storylines which made the book nearly impossible to put down. I am truly looking forward to reading future works by this author.

As someone who lives in the NY/NJ area that had family and friends directly affected by the tragedy at the World Trade Center, I wasn't sure how I would react to this book. However, the premise was intriguing to me--"what if the terrorists won with just one man," so I decided to give it a chance--it was a decision well-rewarded. Braun's style of writing was concise and visual, and he crafted his characters in a way that made them entirely believable and even vaguely familiar. I've read a number of books over time and I can give this book the best praise I have; I didn't want to put it down, and looked forward to my next chance to pick it up to follow along on Jim's journey as he coped with terrible circumstances. I definitely recommend it!

I found this book by literally crawling around on the floor of one of my favorite local bookstores. The title caught my attention and the front picture did me in. The Puppy Sister is an adorable read and very light-hearted. The story's easy to follow and the illustrations add the right touch to the story. The reading itself feels like it's somewhat for the younger set, but then again it's told from the point of veiw of an Aussie puppy.

For anybody who loves animals, I definatly suggest this book! It even serves as a good read-aloud book too!
If you happen to be a furre, you'll eat it up! :3

I read this book as a bedtime story to my son & I thought he'd never stop laughing & fall asleep! If you've never understood how a dog thinks, particularly an Australian Shepherd, this book is a must! I personally loved the description of how Aleasha (the puppy) couldn't stop herself from chewing things because her teeth just "itched" so badly! GREAT!!! I never thought of it that way! I raise Australian Shepherds & am going to be ordering a pile of these to go to my puppy's homes that have children.

I first read this book when i was 7 or 6 and throughly enjoyed it. Though when I read it very recently, I still found it good, but confusing at parts gramatically with the wording. It's about Nick, a boy who's always wanted a sister, and Aleasha, an aussie puppy who wants to be a girl. Overall, it was a pretty good book and I recommend it to people who enjoy a short, sweet story.

The Puppy Sister is a fantasy to be enjoyed by young or the young at heart. Alesha, a Aussie puppy doesn't understand why Nick (her owner)doesn't treat her like a person. Then, as she realizes that she isn't human, she decides that she can become a human. A true masterpice!

I have always loved reading, but when my first grade teacher gave me this book when i was six, I read a little of it, then put it down. It wasn't until six years later, I was browsing my book shelves filled with my childhood books that I found this book again. It was a school morning, but I picked it up anyways and started reading it. I couldn't put it down! Sure, it wasn't my reading level, but it was a sweet book, written in a way that makes you want to know what happens next. It's about a little boy named Nick who gets an Aussie puppy named Aleasha instead of his wish-a sister. Aleasha wants Nick to play with her like he would a real little girl, but he doesn't. So she comes up with a plan. She will turn into a human. What happens next? Read the book to find out, or read another review that theaches you more about it. Whatever!! But it's a really sweet book.

Oxford University press is currently undertaking the massive editorial work required to finish this ground-breaking four-volume set that was started more than 25 years ago. The third volume, covering the alphabetic range of P through Sk, is due to appear in March 2007. Volume IV, covering Sk through Z and including a bibliography of tens of thousands of items, is planned for two years later.(...)

I'm an American slang bug and that's why I'm just chafing at the bit to browse next volumes of this undoubtedly the very best and most comprehensive and authoritative complete on-going dictionary of slang. A lot has been already said and written 'bout this work hence I'm lost for new words of appreciation. On the other hand, however, dear editors, mercy on us, you can't just now dump this big project halfway thru editing thus leaving us, all American slang lovers throughout the English-speaking world in the lurch. There's a glitter of hope, as I heard, to cooperate with Oxford University Press. OK! Go ahead and good luck then but let these words be soon followed by real actions. Sincerely Alex

murdered by the media

These words are no longer in use, as we no longer converse truly and freely as a nation of English and slang speakers

This volume is little more than a nostaligic curio, like Dr. Johnson's dictionary, or the great Ambrose Bierce's better.

The only English slang currently in use is that receptive vocabulary emitted by our media, and not expressive nor creative as our one way media permits no conversation. We are made to listen, to hear, to receive, only. The internet alone allows literacy, and look at the level of written speech there. Yet even there the formerly great oral tongue is lost.

The most vibrant languages heard throbbing through our land are now those not dictated by our anglo media. There alone does the uniquely human aural ability live and breathe. And thus this massive dictionary properly fades away unfinished.

In any case, what anglo librarian would permit its presence in a library?

Intriguing for historical reasons alone. Not useful for comprehending the language one actually hears around oneself, as no living and present language is heard. Just dust off your old Lord Buckley collection instead, or the Mercury recording How To Speak Hip. Not even riding the city bus helps anymore.

Forty years ago our Amrican language was still richer, more diverse, more playful, more subtle. Now we have only whitely phosphorized talking heads bleating how we must speak and thus how we must think, and by limiting our vacabulary limiting our capacity for free thought. Our only hope is a healthy jolt of James Joyce and the trembling Twain.

I must agree with settimio biondi from Italy. Having purchased the first two volumes, we've been waiting for 7 years for P~Z. This is an excellent, comprehensive work. Hopefully, Oxford...or someone with a sense of responsibility...will finish the final volume.

We have been waiting for this dictionary for a long time. Specifically, since 1975 when Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner issued their second supplemented edition of the "Dictionary of American Slang."
Editor J.E. Lighter, a researcher at the University of Tennessee, is somewhat disparaging of Wentworth and Flexner, the only previous lexicographers to take a healthy swing at American slang. (I don't count H.L. Mencken, who compiled many lists, but not in a format that a working writer can use.)
Lighter faults their "looseness of definition, unpredictable allocation of citations and a certain historical naivete." Maybe, but their book had, and still has, the most important merit a dictionary can have -- it is useful.
Also, theirs goes through Z, which is more than Lighter can say in 2006, 12 years after his Vol. 1 came out and many more years than that since he began.
Also, Wentworth and Flexner's volume is wieldy. Lighter's dictionary has many excellencies, but handiness is not one of them.
Wentworth and Flexner covered the whole of American English in a small volume of two pounds, six ounces. Lighter covers one-third the ground in a massive folio of six pounds, one ounce.
Lighter is often, but not always, more comprehensive. Take bum.
W&F give this useful word 26 definitions in a page. Lighter gives 29 in three pages, but three of his usages have earliest dates since W&F's last effort. It looks like a draw, but it's not, quite.
W&F give a nice little essay on the finer gradations of meaning of bum (in its sense of vagabond); Lighter is less preachy on usage, letting the extensive quotations do that work for him. This is the approved method for serious work, but although Lighter's citations often seem repetitive, their length does not always ensure completeness, as we shall see.
W&F derive bum from the German bummler, idler, but Lighter appears to think this an example of historical naivete, finding bum sprung full-blown in 1864, without any certain antecedents. (In its sense of fundament, it goes back in English to at least 1387.)
Turn now to cracker. Lighter gives it nearly half a page, in the sense of "a backwoods Southern white person regarded as ignorant, brutal, loutish, bigoted etc.," tracing it to 1766. W&F does not have it at all.
Lighter is clearly ahead here, but there are problems with this definition.
First, it is politically correct but lexically incorrect. A cracker is not a white person but a white man. Like its synonyms redneck and woolhatter, it is never used of a woman.
Second, not one of the 31 citations even hints at a usage that would explain how the Atlanta professional baseball team in the old Sally League (slang for South Atlantic League; I will be interested to see if this makes it into Lighter's Vol. 3, if I live long enough to see it) came to be called the Crackers. Or how Georgians' and north Floridians' own nickname for themselves came to be crackers, the way people from Indiana call themselves Hoosiers.
Lighter does also give five other definitions of cracker: beans, a remarkable individual, dollar, a poor skier who often loses control and a light-skinned Negro.
Taken in all, Lighter has lifted the compilation of American salng to a new, much higher level -- except for Hawaiian American slang.
Except for go for broke, which is listed as "apparently originally Nisei or Hawaiian English," I cannot find any slang words from the Hawaiian dialect of Standard American -- even though some words in Standard Hawaiian have migrated into Slang English, like kahuna.
There are many definitions in Lighter of grind, for example, but none for the ways we in Hawaii use it as noun and verb (for eating). Chance um is missing, too, and give um and blahlah.
The absence of Hawaiian American Slang (Alaskan, too) is a serious fault, but on the whole the book is a corker ("a person or thing of extraordinary size, effectiveness, quality etc.," originally English slang traced to 1882 but brought into American by Mark Twain in 1889).

Thank you for this book. It was exactly what I was looking for. My husband and I will travel to Senegal and Ghana early 2008 and we will be touring those places associated with the slave trade. I am also researching our family trees and am looking forward to returning to the Motherland.
The part of the book that gives a snapshot of each country on the west coast of Africa, things to take with you and proper behavior in each country was helpful. We would not want to do anything to offend our African brothers and sisters.
Continue doing what you are doing.

Sincerely yours,
Hazhin

This book opened my eyes. I was brainwashed about Africa and did not know it. It was if the book was speaking directly to me. This is a great book easy to read but alot of information

Roots Recovered is not only a practical travel guide, but also a valuable guide for tracing African-American ancestry! The resources and references in this book are extensive and the writers have traveled to these places--making it a treasure trove of information. The traveler can trace one's roots to specific African tribes. The book contains bits of history and is informative, as well as educational and helps Blacks with the misrepresentations about Africa. As a bonus, the reader learns how to travel for free or on a budget. I especially enjoyed these sections: useful phrases, watch you back, women travelers, photography etiquette and places of interest (not your ordinary ones). This book is a must read for anyone planning to travel to Africa.

I really like this book. The resources and references are fantastic and the author proves that he knows what he is talking about. His experiences were exciting, genuwine and informative. In addition there are individual chapters on various West African countries and what you might expect during your visits, plus great information on embassy offices, cheap air seats and safety. A must have for the traveler.

This book is very different. It is a travel book yet it touches upon history and brainwashing of African Americans and how travel to Africa can change the brainwashing. I love Africa so this book did not directly concern me but people who have a bad image of Africa should buy this book. This book is not what I expected but it was a pleasant surprise. This book will make a Black person not be afraid to go to Africa to see it because it informs you of all the misrepresentions.