S Books

LIBRO PARA COMPRENDER Y CONDUCIR BIEN A LOS ADOLESCENTES
COMO DIRÍAN ELLOS: GENIAAAAL !

fue un encanto...hasta que le pegó la adolescencia...PERO LOS CONSEJOS Y LOS PUNTOS DE VISTA DE ESPARZA, EL AUTOR DE ESTE LIBRO, NOS PERMITIERON SORTEAR EL TEMPORAL

QUE TE PERMITE CRUZAR POR EL TIEMPO BORRASCOSO DE LA ADOLESCENCIA DE TUS HIJOS, COMO SI FUERA UN DIA SOLEADO Y SIN
TURBULENCIA...Y HACER FELIZ A TUS ADOLESCENTES SIN DEJAR DE ORIENTARLOS.
¡PERFECTO !

Porque comprende bien que, al entrar a esa edad, nuestros muchachos cambian al mismo ritmo en que sus hormonas suben y bajan...
También hay que tomar en consideración que los chicos necesitan estabilidad, y que el PORQUE LO MANDO YO !les provocará berrinches, pero en el fondo, se sienten bien porque se dan cuenta de que sus padres se sienten seguros de lo que ordenan!
UN LIBRO INTELIGENTÍSIMO!!

cumplía 15 años, NOS DESPERTÓ UN PAVOROSO TAMBORAZO.
Mi esposa se abrazó a mi. Yo salté como conejo espantado y me levanté con tal violencia que Joanna se cayó porque estaba colgada de mi cuello.
Del tamborazo, siguio un trompetazo y miles de guitarras eléctricas !
NUESTRO "NENE " ESTRENABA SU LIBERTAD ADOLESCENTE.
Pensé en darle una cintariza ( no, ya no estaba en edad de que hiciera lo que nunca habia hecho con él )
PENSÉ EN UN INTERNADO: Joanna me pediria el divorcio
EN UNA CAMISA DE FUERZA ( Para Jon Jr...o para mi )
EN IRME A VIVIR CON MIS PADRES. ¡Ay, no !
MI SUEGRO ME REGALO ESTE LIBRO...ese mismo día,Joanna y yo nos fuimos al parque con sandwiches y abandonamos la fortaleza en manos de nuestro hijo...
SOLO 2 MESES DESPUES...¡SANTO REMEDIO !
Casi le prendemos veladoras al libro,tan leído que nos lo sabemos de memoría...
SI OYES UN TAMBORAZO, ¡CORRE A COMPRARLO ANTES DE QUE OIGAS EN TROMPETAZO, AMIGO !

Review from Ryan Brenizer's Amazon Blog

America at Home
8:45 AM PDT, June 16, 2008, updated at 8:47 AM PDT, June 16, 2008
If millions of photographers around the world have a collective bias, it's this: The more interesting the better. Generally, that's a good thing -- the last thing the world needs are thousands of photo documentaries on "Things I Found in My Belly-Button." But if you're trying to document the way we live, it can be dangerously deceptive. Someone hundreds of years from now looking only at the professional photography of the era might assume we spent most of our time getting married and killing each other, but never went to the store or drove to work.

Photojournalist Rick Smolan tries to ameliorate this with "America at Home." Documenting as broad an idea as American domestic life is a daunting task, but Rick handles it adeptly, with a number of clever flourishes. His curating of the collection is very well-handled. It's unselfish, with his own work playing roles only where it fits best (and one of my favorite photos in the book, of a girl resting on the couch in the dramatic shadows of twilight, is his). With few exceptions, the photos that look best large are given the space to shine, and the photos that can convey messages in smaller sizes are paired up on a page, maximizing visual impact. The work itself tends to be both brilliant and familiar, trending toward subtle compositions that tell a story without being garish, appropriate for the topic.

Where it starts to get clever is in how the book is arranged. There are essays by writers such as Amy Tan and Terry Teachout breaking the book into chapters, but the photos are arranged around prominently displayed salient facts about American life, such as how much TV we watch a day or that the average American woman has one hour less free time per day than the average American man (I tried to hide that page from my wife).

It's a book that's supposed to teach us about us, and Rick wants readers to make it their own -- literally. The book has a companion Web site, MyAmericaAtHome.com, where you can order the book with your own photo as a customized cover. Since this is all about domestic life, I tried it out with a photo of my nephew at the ice cream shop instead of my professional work:

As you can see, the process is well-designed and easy to understand, showing how the final product will look with the headline and logo, as well as whether your photo will have enough resolution to make a good cover print. It's not only an easy process, but a bit addictive, so be careful lest you order 20 different copies of the same book.

This book represents an important topic well-handed, and a copy will be sure to grace my coffee table.
[...]

I have spent hours of enjoyment with this book....losing myself in faces and places unknown to me, yet at the same time hauntingly familiar. Rick Smolan has captured America at the very time when so many of us feel we are losing a connection to the vitality and promise of our country. But in every page and every essay, there are precious reminders of where our strength for the future lies...in America's people and in our homes an communities. Thank you, Rick Smolan.....

I have followed Rick Smolan's books for many years. This book touched me as few others have done. My Czech wife often seems to miss the diversity of the true America. I think all of us that have suffered these past 8 years where we might not have felt proud of our country can find something to feel proud of in this book. Here one can see so clearly and beautifully the diversity, the imagination, the love of family and friends that we who have grown up in America hold to be the true America. I shared this book with my wife who I think was quite surprised to see how many America's there are and to see what the true fabric of our society looks like beyond the slick magazines and endless TV glitz.

This is a book that you can give to someone who wants to see and better understand what America is truly about.

A beautiful and elegant celebration of american life at home.
The authors also offer a great way to personalize the outer cover of the book with your own pictures. Very cool!! Customizing the cover makes a great conversation piece for your home as well as a great gift for friends and family.

I love the warmth of this book. I travel the world and am disturbed by the misconceptions many foreigners have of us here at home. (I can't say I blame them with the present administration having devastated our reputation and the relentless negative news reports.)
I would love to share this book with everyone abroad. It paints honest, touching, personal, everyman images of true Americans in all sorts of everyday activities in their homes.
Whether as a gift to people abroad or enjoyed with friends and family, this beautiful book presents who we are as everyday people. Honest, simple, good, loving Americans.
Thanks to Rick and Jennifer.

I discovered Betty MacDonald when I was about twelve years old, after checking The Egg and I out of the Carmichael Branch library here in Sacramento, about 22 years after it was first published. My parents had mentioned that the egg ranch Betty lived on with her first husband in the 1920s, which she writes about in The Egg and I, was located some miles from the place where we lived in Washington state, in the late 1950s. Furthermore, they had actually taken a day trip with friends to look at the old place, sometime after the book and the movie of the same name came out in the 1940s.

This familial connection, however faint, to an old, famous book and the movies it inspired, piqued my childish mind, and I eagerly started reading about life on a chicken ranch on the Olympic Penninsula. I fell in love with Betty's easy, friendly, hysterically funny, down-to-earth yet somehow elegant prose, and immediately checked out her other autobiographical books: The Plague and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, and Onions In The Stew.

In all of her autobiographical books save Onions In The Stew, Betty uses the first chapter to presage her theme by describing her experiences as a child in a large, boisterous family, in loving and extremely funny detail. In Anybody Can Do Anything, Betty describes life with her family and her two young daughters, Anne and Joan, in Seattle after she has left her husband and the egg ranch behind. The Depression is on, and Betty, now a single mother, struggles with her large and interesting clan to make ends meet, somehow finding a lot of laughs and funny adventures, often with her exuberant sister Mary, the inspiration for the book, along the way. Anyone who is interested in what life was like in Seattle in the 1930s, in witty character descriptions, and in a personal glimpse of how families coped with the "Great Depression", will find this book fascinating, not to mention frequently hilarious.

Betty, I miss you and the way you used to make me laugh out loud--I was sad when I finished reading Onions In The Stew for the first time and then realized it was the last autobiographical book you wrote: the tuberculosis finally caught up with you in 1958, when I was only four years old, still living in Washington, not far from your home on Vashon Island. I re-read your books many times as I grew up, even visited Vashon Island, and often wished I could have met you and your family. It's silly, but I've always felt a sense of loss at never having known you, because I am sure you must have been a marvelous friend. Your sense of humor had a profound effect on me, and inspired me in my earliest writing attempts. It's been many years since I've read your books, but I've never forgotten your irrepressible, bona-fide funniness. Wherever you are, thank you!

My husband is one of Betty's nephews.All of the sisters had an incredible wit about them - probably because of their mother Sidney Bard. She did a wonderful job raising her children with out her beloved husband Darcy. It's too bad the children and grandchildren didn't learn lessons from Betty's books. She would be sad to see the way the family turned out.

It's just so heartening to know that others love Betty MacDonald's books as much as I do. I've been giving Anybody Can Do Anything as my female gift book of this year.

we get the story of what she and the children did with themselves.

Her father had been a mining engineer, and although he died fairly young he had been able to save quite a bit; her mother had come from a 'good' East Coast family--not REALLY rich, but apparently quite well off. Betty and her siblings had grown up in large houses with music and dance lessons. However, the Great Depression reduced the family's portfolio to wastepaper. The children had never been taught to actually *do* anything, and actually going out to work for a living was something that they (especially the daughters) had never thought that they would have to do.

The story of how they scrambled to make ends meet during the 1930s would have been grim, but the Bard family despises self-pity above all other faults, and Betty is able to find humor in any situation.

After women having to work to survive during the 1930s, and having to work in the 1940s when all the men were off to war, is it any wonder that the women of this generation and their daughters wanted to retreat into domesticity during the 1950s?

This book is hard to find, so if you get the chance, snap it up!
This is a hilarious account of the author's life post-"Egg & I."
Betty moves from the chicken ranch back to her family's home in Seattle.
Sister Mary, undaunted by the fact that Betty has no experience, eagerly launches Betty's business career and social life.
The mishaps that ensue are absolutely hilarious.
Skillfully written, this book makes the Depression a laugh riot.
BUY IT!
I only wish that Betty had written more books.

I have read about thirteen books on the JFK assassination, and I found this book incredible. I learned all kinds of new material, and understood long sprawling arguments for the first time because of their concise summaries in some of these articles.

The articles are especially good on the Corporate Media and in this sense are more relevent to today than almost any current event. The level of detail that is provided about the relationship between the media and intelligence agencies, really makes one think even more profoundly than Chomskys writing, about the implications of this centralized media power for today's news.

I disagree with Vince Palamara. I think this book is much more valuable than Ultimate Sacrifice. This book says what the evidence in that tomb wants to say, but the authors are too cautious to write.

I should mention that this book features two articles by John Armstrong. The hypothesis presented here, at first seems incredible. But it is very well argued and it sure does tie up loose ends and makes impossible timelines seem quite plausible. Armstrong makes his case for a Harvey and a Lee, quite convincingly.

Deserves ten stars.

In the late 1960's, the Hollywood producer Robert Evans premiered the movie "The President's Analyst". It was, in many ways the touchstone movie of that period. Edgy, subversive, with a sense of creeping paranoia, it was nevertheless a funny and enjoyable couple of hours.

Jumpcut to the subject of this review. Take out the funny and enjoyable part, and you get a very serious treatment of the seminal events of this very turbulent decade. The assassinations of John F Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Robert F Kennedy are covered here in a series of expose's printed in Probe Magazine. The scope is ambitious. Collusive conspiracies are indicated in each of these events.

The lion's share of the book is devoted to the murder of JFK. The single bullet theory has been assailed for forty five years as of this writing. However, the authors go further than taking on this concept. They find that there were actually two Oswald's. One they call Lee, and one Harvey. This gets to be a stretch, as they trace them both back to their high school years, as if they were both born, bred and fated to play a crucial part in one of history's ultimate dramas.

Special animus is given to the establishment figures of the time, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Helms, and the super-spook, James Angleton. Inconsistencies in the Warren Commission are detailed, and the findings of Jim Garrison, the New Orleans Prosecutor whose ideas Oliver Stone based many of the ideas from JFK on are applauded.

I found fault in the final chapter of the writing of the JFK portion in which they write about the assassination of JFK's character after he died. The author seems to find conspiracies in the fact that people wrote about his infidelities and recklessness, as if it never happened, and JFK was really an innocent who just liked the company of women to make small talk with. I think this argument took credibility away from the rest of the writing.

The most shocking subject was that regarding Robert F Kennedy. I had always believed that this was an open and shut case, with Sirhan Sirhan being a lone, deranged, Palestinian gunman. This book makes a convincing and eye-opening case that this was not the case. There were at least ten bullets fired, Bobby had four wounds, and Sirhan's gun only fired two shots. This is an appalling gap in what has been reported in mainstream news. There is the Manchurian Candidate angle presented here, which now looks astonishingly viable.

The treatise on Martin Luther King takes on a new light as well, given the information that his own family asked for a new trial for James Earl Ray, the convicted (presumably innocent) killer of the former. There is ample evidence of a large scale cover-up after the murder. The author's lose some credibility when they attempt to speculate on why the conspiracies and cover-ups occured. They would do better to merely present the facts, which they sometimes do. However, free press reigns, and they are entitled to their opinions.

However, there is shocking evidence of wide scale and well coordinated cover-ups and conspiracies here.

Malcolm X story is presented more as an informational timeline of the harrassment of him and his family, his falling out with the Nation of Islam leadership, and his premonition of his own death. There were five gunmen who killed him, but only one convicted.

At this writing (2008) there is a new re-examination of the the 1960's decade. Tom Brokaw's book "Boom" talks about the influence of the actions and political climate of the times, and today's leadership.

For anyone who wants a thought provoking, albeit dark look at this decade, this book is required reading.

For those who are interested in the assassinations of the sixties this book is a must have. The essays are well-written and give the reader insight into not only the murders themselves, but how our government and their surrogates behaved prior to and after these murders. Reliance on the use of declassified documents helps to fill in the blanks or reveal how some stories circulated at the time of the murders were deliberate propaganda.

John Armstrong's two-part essay documenting the existence of two people using the "Lee Harvey Oswald" identity a decade before JFK's assassination is at once so well-documented and so shocking that it's impossible not to see the fingerprints of certain federal agencies on JFK's murder. Armstrong has his own book on the subject, HARVEY AND LEE, self-published, and if you can hunt down a copy you will be amazed.

Until then, grab this book. You will read it over and over.

Good, but ULTIMATE SACRIFICE the best book ever
While I thought this book was worthwhile in many respects, ULTIMATE SACRIFICE is simply the best book ever on the JFK assassination.Still, worth your time.

Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA

Probe Magazine has always fascinated even lone nut theorists.
The reason why is because it was an extremely investigative Magazine.
James DiEugenio, Lisa Pease, etc have been known for their tireless investigative research into the true circumstances surrounding the death of America's 35th President.
Now, you can read the wonderful articles that the Probe writers worked on concerning the conspiratorial Assassination of not only John F Kennedy, but also the suspicious assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
Some have said that perhaps these assassinations werent merely isolated events, but that they were all connected in some way.
This is not far fetched when one considers that Bobby Kennedy was shot within a week after he said "Only the powers of the Presidency will reveal the true circumstances of (JFK's) murder" or words to the effect.
Also J Edgar Hoover, who clearly must atleast be suspected in the murder of Martin Luther King Jr, was THE man in charge of the "investigation" of JFK's death.
Also Hoover hated Bobby Kennedy with a purple passion.
It may be true that the same establishment that felt threatened enough by JFK that they decided to kill him, may have killed his Brother to remain in the shadows that they had hid in since '63.
And Martin Luther King Jr, had, at times, made the same enemies, that the Kennedy brothers had.
One cant help recognize the eerie similarities between Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray.
Whether these assassinations were related or not, this is for certain: This book will really make you think about these assassinations, if you havent before.
This book is so interesting, you will want to read it and reread it again and again.

I've been fly fishing for over 30 years and live in the epicenter of fly fishing in Montana. I learned a ton from this book ("Barr Flies"). I caught more trout over 20 inches this Summer on the Beaverhead than any time in the past. Filled with great, very specific tactics. Thanks John Barr.

I am usually pretty picky on my fly pattern books and get most of them off the internet. This is a reallyg good addition to your tying library and has lots of info, pictures and organized well. I keep it next to my bench when I get ready to go chase the trout or warmwater fish. Great for remembering patterns I had tied or finding new ones to try.

Barr Flies: How to Tie and Fish the Copper John, the Barr Emerger, and Dozens of Other Patterns, Variations, and Rigs
I have purchased and read many books in the last few years regarding tying and fishing,but this book not only is well-written and enjoyable to read but it just may give you some new weapons in your fishing arsenal! The photography is excellent and Mr Barr's flies,tying techniques and practical suggestions as to how to fish these flies is wonderful.You will not be dissapointed with the purchase of this book!

It is hard to imagine that anyone pursuing trout on flies could have walked into a fly shop in the past five years and not have walked out with one of John Barr's flies. Even harder to imagine is that this same angler has never heard of a Copper John or a Barr Emerger. Walking into several fly shops in the past four months around the country, I can attest not only to the popularity of his patterns, but the more than enthusiastic reception this book has received among the fly fishing faithful.

I admit to having tied my own Copper John's for years, now. While I doubt that the effectiveness of my flies will change much now that I tie them in de facto Barr style, the step-by-step instructions and photographs sure have them looking just flat-out better than anything turned out at the vise previously. From a standpoint of personal pride alone, this book may be worth the purchase.

John's commentary on the development of the patterns is good entertainment, but what I found to be of great value were his explanations for why he was driven to imitate the food organisms he has included (i.e. why they are important to the trout), how to fish them best, and overall how these flies are incorporated into his own personal system of fishing. The final pages provide photographs and explanations of four fly boxes (which may have been featured in an issue of "Fly Fisherman" previously - I have not bothered to check) containing the book's patterns in an array of colors and sizes, in addition to a few other popular western fly patterns. I know I stand on thin and melting ice at the mere suggestion of such a notion, but the thought of consolidating one's fly assortment to just four boxes and covering all of the bases likely to be met on-stream just sounds outrageously tempting. Perhaps when I have put 200 days on the water for the next 10 years and have 20 original patterns designed to tackle all of the challenges faced in that time, I will be able to do so. In the meantime, why start re-inventing the wheel? A great book, whether you want to subscribe to a complete fishing system, learn a few new techniques and flies to add to your arsenal, or just make your own flies look better.

I just wanted to put in my two cents about this great book and Barr flies in general. I hesitated to try Barr flies for a long time thinking them "Western" flies that our Eastern trout might find insulting. I tied up some Copper Johns and slumpbusters for a Western trip and they worked great in Northern Idaho. So one day I gave them a try on a tough Eastern stream and they worked super here too(helped me avoid a skunk.) They have definately earned a permanent place in my flybox. I'm sure they will in your's too if you give them a try.

I found this book un-put-downable. From start to finish the pace never lets up giving you little time to think about such mundane acts as eating and drinking. Mr Robinson's vivid description and use of the putrifying mess that's left after a major battle adds great a twist to the story. I recommemnd this book with only one reservation that it should to be read on an empty stomach. Otherwise buy it!

Bought this book for my 16 year old son for Christmas. He devoured it and asked when the next one would be out. I told him we would have to check with Mr. Robinson. Great job, Timbo!

Being an avid fan of fantasy, choosing to read this book was easy. After getting into it, I found it much more exciting than most. Number one, the story is based after the battle, not a pretty scene and well described in gory detail. Mr. Robinson puts you there, on the battlefield itself. Once you get through the first couple of chapters, you begin to put all the characters together, each one having a unique personality, be it good or evil. You begin to relate to each one. This is not a book that you will want to put down, once you start reading it. I found myself getting deeper and deeper with with each chapter. Mr.Robinson has a talent for keeping you on the edge, wanting to know what is going to happen next. It is very well written - you become so involved that you don't want to stop reading, until the book is finished. Being that this is T.S.Robinson's first novel, it is excellent reading - I can hardly wait until his next one is released.

"It was a good day to die." That's the first sentence of this book, and believe me, it sets the tone for what is to follow.

From page one, this book grabs you by the throat and drags you along through the filth, decay, and appalling aftermath of the death and destruction that is the sad result of a fierce battle. The setting is a big battlefield, and interestingly enough, the whole story takes place in a single day after the battle has ended. Not everyone on the battlefield is dead, though most are. But of those left alive, all have a purpose for living. Some have noble causes, others slink around looking for even more victims. This story tells you...excuse me, shows you what their objectives are, and what they do to accomplish them.

This is not your typical fantasy. For example, this is the first book I've read that has a cast including dragons, dwarves, vampires and even zombies to name a few. But it's a good story told very well. As you change chapters, you move back and forth among the characters and see the story from their eyes. On one page, you'll find yourself holding your breath as one person struggles desperately to stay alive, and a few pages down, you'll find yourself hoping the bad guy gets what's coming to him. Either way, you'll come to care for some of the characters. And don't worry, while the premise for the story seems dark, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

This book is just the way I like them -- the pace is fast, the action is furious, the scenes are described well, and the story is darned good. I recommend this book to fantasy lovers who want to try something a little different.

In the first pages, of Battle Chasers, the incredible detail captures your attention as your imagination runs off to another time and place. Your heart begins to race as you join Ringlerun in his magnificent journey searching for vengeance. Suddenly, you feel the tug of compassion tug while soaring with Rhordanz. The author provides thought-provoking lessons in life for those who listen. T.S. Robinson, I anxiously await to join you on your next adventure.

Anyone who has studied languages, particularly difficult ones, knows that repetition, and lots of it, is the key to success. This book and its companions excel in this regard. Vocabulary is chosen carefully and is then used to build graded sentences through example, dialog and narrative which can run to over twenty pages in a single lesson. I wish that I'd had the equivalent when studying Korean and Japanese.
One piece of bad news, however, the text is in traditional characters. This means that at some point you are going to have to make the effort to learn the simplified characters that are used by the bulk of Chinese throughout the world now. However, if you've mastered the texts in this series, that shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

These texts are the seminal series in hanzi erudition. They are great for learning the language, and reading and writing its characters. This one is the second of the first two 'Beginning' texts. I just finished the first. It should be noted that this, the 2nd, is intended to be grouped with the first. The 2nd therefore has the index, dictionary, and other appendices in back. The first only has the first 33 chapters. If considering purchase or already in possession of the first, you might consider ordering this one also.
The book is structured into chapters each presenting 10 base character words, and about 40 compounds derived therefrom. After character and compound presentation, are short example sentances which have english translations. Then there are a few pages of dialogue text, untranslated. Finally are a few pages of narative prose, also untranslated. Then its on to the next chapter with another ten characters. Every sixth chapter is a summary of the last five with some excercises to distinguish similar constructs and prose to excercise reading.
Amazon got the book to me flawlessly of course. Pricewise it was unbeatable, although I bought the first one used for a fraction.

I'm not going to repeat what has already been said but DeFrancis states that this book and volume 2 combined contains 120,000 characters of running text using just 400-500 distinct characters!!! It is this repetition and various presentation of characters in different contexts that I find the most valuable. I am not sure where else you can find such a large number of what is essentially graded readings for beginners.

As many have mentioned before, this is bested used as a supplement to a grammar text.

This book is an excellent means of practicing reading Mandarin chinese in Traditional characters, but has little to no guidance on grammar, pronunciation, or traditional uses. While some self-study types like myself would be tempted to try using just one book at a time, I'd say this would best be used in conjunction with the other books in the series, or one of the software/tape systems for spoken and grammatical chinese.

In the 1960's, while Mr. DeFrancis was working on this series, he wrote an essay called "Why Johnny Can't Read Chinese" (Journal of the Chinese Language Teaching Institute, Volume 1) in which he explains why a book like this is necessary and why he designed it the way he did. The reviews below pretty much restate it - you cannot learn to read Chinese just by memorizing a lot of individual characters.

An example: ben3 means "root" or "self." Lai2 means "come." Di4 means "earth." Ren2 means "man." All simple words. But when combined, could you guess that benlai would mean "originally" or bendi would mean "this country" or benren would mean "myself, yourself, himself"? There are thousands and thousands of combinations of this sort that have to be learned separately from the individual characters or you will have no idea what you're reading.

In addition, I would like to get something off my chest. Everyone tells you Chinese grammar is easy. It isn't! It's just different! Chinese uses word order instead of declensions, tenses, etc., to convey different meanings. If you get the word order wrong, you're saying something completely different from what you wanted to say. People will tell you word order in Chinese is a lot like English, which is true in simple terms, but a very dangerous generalization. "Bu hen hao," for instance, means not very good, but "Hen bu hao" means really bad. "Min2guo2" means republic but "guo2min2" (same characters) means citizen. In any kind of complex sentence (or even in simple ones) you need to be very familiar with common, habitual word order rules. There are too many of them to simply learn by rote. And that's not even mentioning the problem with particles like the infamous "le." You need to read a LOT of Chinese words in context to really learn these grammar rules.

And the DeFrancis Chinese Reader Series has just that. These books are thick! Another reviewer below gave the number of characters in each volume, I think, and you can read above the dimensions of the book, so I won't repeat it here.

The Readers also teach you the cultural significance of a lot of terms, a lot of idiomatic expressions, and a lot of historical and place names. And also I'll make the suggestion that you use these books in combination with his grammar texts, "Beginning Chinese," etc. The audiotapes for the whole series, including the Readers, is available from Seton Hall Language Lab. I don't think you can find any series more thorough.

Some people will tell you these books are out of date because they were written in the late 1960's, but I haven't found that to be a problem at all. Grammar doesn't change much. A few words have changed, but really, you need to know the old words as well as the new. I mean, is anyone saying that English readers can't understand books written 50 years ago? The only form of language that changes that quickly is slang, and you're in trouble if you think that's language learning. Foreign language book publishers are the main culprits here - they want to come out with a new, more expensive edition of their audaciously expensive, well-nigh worthless texts every 5 years. But don't get me started.

The introduction in the beginning of the book makes a lot of good points, but I've used up all my space, so I'll put some quotes in a "Volume 2" review in case you're still wondering if this is the right series for you.

Oh - and do buy Volume 2 along with Volume 1 because, as reviewers have noted below, the index is at the back of Volume 2.

I bought this book and another for my father. He was on the USS Enterprise during his time in the navy and has recently started reading old war books. Great price and arrived very quickly. My dad was happily surprised when he opened this gift. I don't expect he'll ever read the whole book but he's read bits and pieces of it since Christmas.

This is one of the best books ever wrote on WWII. I wish it could have gone more into the actual deck operations but you cannot really fault the auther. What astonishes me most is the number of times pilots understood that they had no fuel and would have to ditch into the ocean but still pushed on watching there friends and squadron mates go down in battle. I recommend to everyone.

Two sections in this book stand out in my mind. One was the section talking about the crew as they enter Pearl Harbor immediately after the attack. You could feel the emotions as you read about them and you could imagine how they felt as they saw the destruction. The other is the ending. It was almost as if the author were writing about the death of a person instead of a ship.

This is a very well writen book about a very important ship in our history. There are not too many ships that have the record of the Enterprise and there probably will not be too many more like her. The book reads like a novel instead of a historical book and it breathes life into the ship and her valiant crew.

If you enjoy WW2 History. Specifically US Navy genre, it can't get any better than a book about a ship whose name will live forever(and deservedly so). Got an old 2nd hand book years ago and it remains my prized book.

I absolutely adore this book, and am on at least the third copy I've owned, having worn the others out.

CDR Staffor has written an absolutely magnificient tome. He covers both the scope of the War in the Pacific, and the exploits of the Enterprise herself very thoroghly and in incredible detail.

I've always been interested in the Enterprise, especially considering that my dad was a pilot in the last Air Group ever assigned to the ship.

Her story is the story of the pacific, and the coming of age years of naval aviation. The early giants of naval aviation commanded her, and the greats of this horrible war flew from her decks, and helped to build her legend.

This book is one of the pillars that must be read in order to develop a thorough understanding and appreciation of the war in the Pacific.

It's just a great shame that the campaign to save her from the scrapper's torch failed. It's ironic that the ship that the enemy could never destroy ended up losing her life to a torch a few hundred miles from her birth place.

Our daughter used this book as a resource when she did her own Search. I read it and was amazed at what a 'complete' book it is. It focuses on every aspect of an adoptee's search. There are chapters for the birthparents, the adoptee, the adoptive parents, etc. There are many, many 'testimonials' included, positive, neutral and negative, from adoptees, adoptive parents, birthparents, regarding searches.
I highly recommend this book to any adoptee who is considering doing their own Search, to any adoptive parent whose child is searching, to any adoptive parent whose child has already done their search, and to any birthparent in that situation.
There truly is something for everyone.
(I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because nothing's perfect.)

I found this book incredibly helpful in helping me deal with searching for and eventually reuniting with my birthmother. I bought it a year and a half ago, and I've referred back to it so many times that it looks like I've had it much longer. It gives very helpful advice for everyone involved in adoption and allows you to see all sides of the issue. Also, the testimonials and Jean Strauss's search and reunion story give the book a very personal feel. Overall, a great book for anyone connected to adoption.

I bought this book after reading "The Girls Who Went Away" by Ann Fessler and I'm glad I did. It really brings the subject of adoption full circle by telling the stories from all sides of the coin. But it also gives A Lot of starting points and next steps for people to use while doing their own search. My brother and I are both adoptees. I found my birth mother over 16 years ago but she had died in a car accident 6 months after I was born. Took me 15 more years to find my birth father. Both finding my birth mother and birth father were purely the grace of God because I had absolutely nothing to go on. My brother recently asked me to help him locate his birth parents and I'm so glad I purchased this book. Not only for the large quantity of resources it lists, but so I can also prepare him for the many different outcomes he may experience. I can also add, that by reading this book, it has been an emotional rollercoaster. Being able to relate to so many feelings, stories, dreams has really been healing in a lot of ways. Knowing there are so many people out there with similar emotions due to being adopted has been comforting in some strange way. I'd have to say one of my favorite parts of the book is when it talks about how society continues to view the adopted child as just that, a child. Society never took into account that we, as adopted children, would grow up to become contributing adults who have every right to know about ourselves, where we came from and everything pertaining to our lives. I guess if I had to pick one word to explain how this book made me feel it would be EMPOWERED.

Being adopted, my interest in finding books relating to my own thoughts and journey was quite a challenge. Interestingly, I found this book after finding my birthmother and two siblings. The book was a confirmation of every step and emotion I felt. I can't reccomend this book enough. It is written in a non-threatning and caring tone. Every adoptee or a parent that has relinguished a child should read it if for no other reason than to educate oneself.

To help someone not only understand why they are searching, but help in getting started in the search. This was a God send for me! I am now sharing my copy with my neighbor who is an adoptive mom. It's just wonderful. Everyone should read it.

If you are a veterinarian and don't have this book, get it! Great client education handouts on cd included.

This book is awesome! Does not go indepth, but has ALL the pertinent information related to specific diseases/clinical signs (definitions, Physiology, symptoms, lab work, treatment, follow up care)all on one page! A VERY useful book so far, especially from a tech's point of view!

Just replaced my 3rd edition, the 4th addition is a bit better has some new information, doseages for new drugs and a CD with Client education handouts.

I needed this item ASAP and I received it on time which was excellent since I paid for fast shipping. The cover of the book though looked a little worn. The book was supposed to be new but looking at it I wasn't 100% sure. If I had time I probably would have returned it for another copy. Besides that I was satisfied with my purchase.

Whenever I encounter a new disease, or need to refresh my memory about one I haven't seen lately, I reach for this book first. I find it to be concise, informative, and useful. While other medical texts make for good fireside or bedtime reading, this one cuts to the chase, and is useful in the midst of a busy veterinary schedule.
I use this book as my "nerd book", jotting notes in the margins when I learn something new about a disease from reading journals. Overall I am quite impressed at how up-to-date and complete the information is vis-a-vis JAVMA, the Compendium for Continuing Education, etc. I also appreciate that this book comes out in new additions often enough to keep up with the rapid changes in veterinary medicine.