Customer Reviews:
useful guide to chinese language.......2007-01-05
I had some chinese language many years ago and wanted to renew it, and especially to get a handle on spoken chinese, as I can read reasonably well. the dialogues were useful, the grammar lessons and exercises especially good.
I wish there were a third book I could go to from this one.
Excellent continuation of the first volume.......2007-01-01
This continuation of Yong Ho's "Beginning Chinese" follows a slightly different format, First of all, it does not have the cultural insight digressions that made the first volume so enjoyable (however the useful "Language Points" are still there). Secondly the structure of the chapters are different; this volume has reading and translation exercises that the first volume didnt have (not a surprising development as one progresses in learning the language). Thirdly the quality and organization of the CD is much improved over the CDs found in "Beginning Chinese." The book concludes with a guide on internet resources and computing in Chinese that is very helpful. As is the case for Ho's "Beginning Chinese" and his "Chinese-English Frequecy Dictionary" you'll get some grammatical insights to Mandarin that are difficult to find elsewhere.
Maybe intermediate-Biginner Chinese?.......2006-02-22
The title of this book is a little bit misleading because it is not really an intermediate level book, and for that reason, I am a bit crestfallen, although it looks interesting.
Each chapter consists of the following:
1- dialogues
2- reading in Chinese, usually 5 to 15 sentences.
3- vocabulary list
4- linguistic explanation of focused materials
5- exercises
Nices: It has many more pictures than many other language textbooks would (even though they should), and I think this is very nice; it makes the learning more vivid. Linguistic explanations look very explicit. Some of the supplementary activities look interesting, too. The price is quite reasonable for a textbook with an audio CD. Please note: there is only 1 CD, and not 2. There are reading passages about Chinese culture in Chinese, which I found very useful because when one learns a foreign language, s/he must also learn the culture in which the target language is used (learning a language is not just a task of translating something from one language to another).
Not Nices: It looks like every Chinese character in the book has pinyin on it, and this, for some reasons, annoys me a little bit because it make this textbook full of words. If this book is for intermediate learners of Chinese, we probably do not need pinyin for every word such as "wo (I, me)" "ni (you)" shenme (what)" ... Audio recordings are too slow, too; I edited them using a software programme on my computer, and I played them x2 faster than the original, but they were still slow enough for me to repeat after them without looking at the scripts (perform shadowing). Also this textbook is DEFINITELY NOT for intermediate learners. It would be more acurate to entitle this book "Biginner's Chinese Level 2" or something. If you have mastered the basic grammar rules of Chinese, you will be able to enjoy this book; probably suitable for 2nd semester of Chinese for college students. This book would be for intermediate-beginners.
(For intermediate learners of Chinese, I would probably recommend "Yuandi" published by Department of Chinese, The University of Tokyo. ISBN: 4130821075 without CDs, and ISBN: 4130821156 with 2 CDs. You can get that from Amazon in Japan, not Amazon river, but the bookstore Amazon. Japanese Amazon has a website in English as well, and there isn't much written in Japanese in this textbook; pretty much everything is written in Chinese, but lots of fun readings, enjoyable, juicy!)
But anyways, thank you very much for reading my review until the end.
Another winning text by Yong Ho.......2005-06-06
Please see my review of "Beginner's Chinese with 2 Audio CDs".
"Intermediate Chinese" is even better than "Beginner's Chinese" because the font for the characters is large enough to be easily read. All of the good things said about the first book apply also to this one.
Book Description
Intimate and touching, this biography captures the warmth and wit of Steve Goodman, one of the most respected songwriters of the 1970s and early 1980s. Diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 20, this portrait tells how Goodman strove to be a model husband and father while juggling experimental medical treatments with a career he found irresistible. Often strained for commercial success, Goodman found solace in performances for audiences from the tens to the tens of thousands. Drawing from more than 850 interviews--including those with family members, Jimmy Buffett, Steve Martin, Willie Nelson, Studs Terkel, Roger Ebert, and Carl Reiner--this book verifies the universality of his work, replete with Goodman's themes on the fleeting nature of human existence. A 17-song tribute CD is included.
Customer Reviews:
Steve Goodman.......2007-09-12
I saw him at Cafe Lena and in concert with Bonnie Raitt. Loved him and now loved the story of his life.
Um - Can We Say "Obsessive"?.......2007-09-01
I loved Steve Goodman and his music. He seemed to me to be modest, low-key, kind, and generous. I'm not sure his memory is best served with the near deification Eals attempts in this book. In-depth interviews with elementary school acquaintances, a line--by-line account on one of Steve's concerts, and endless conjecture about what Steve might have been thinking or feeling at any given time are not the makings of a good biography. After about three chapters, the author's obvious hero-worship and obsessive fascination with details began to seem quite creepy. Steve Goodman had a life; it was too short, but full and rich. Maybe the author should consider getting one as well.
Steve Goodman: What a Guy!.......2007-08-20
I have no idea who Clay Eals is, but he has certainly captured Steve Goodman's essence in this wonderful biography. I lived on the same block as Somebody Else's Troubles, and I have bored my poor husband to death with tales of the best concert I ever saw....when Steve performed at Chicago Fest. All of us sat around on the floor of Navy Pier, and Steve just sat in a chair, and we were all in heaven. He was amazing. Thank you for sharing how influential he was, not only to Arlo Guthrie, but also to Jimmy Buffet, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine and so many others. If I hear one more person say that "City of New Orleans" is Arlo's most brilliant song, I will just scream. Thanks for recalling Steve's ability to make a roomful of total strangers into close friends...if only for a night.
Loved it.......2007-07-27
I have played Steve's music for my daughter and son, and have told them he is a national treasure and cultural icon. This book explains why, for when they want more details. (usually they do) Like other old fans, reading the book reminded me of seeing Steve at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Main Point, and Mariposa. The book does a good job of describing the special quality of performance, that Steve was able to really work the room, no matter how big it was, and get everybody in the palm of his hand. The massive size of the book and its tons of details ensures that it will only be completely read by his most dedicated fans. So there's some irony in that, separates the men from the boys. Anyway, I'm just about done reading it, and it's been most enjoyable. CD's a real tearjerker.
A triumph of patience, deep research and good writing.......2007-07-20
Clay Eals scores with this biography of "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music." Even if Goodman had a shortened career caused by his untimely death from cancer, the book gives a multitude of reasons why he has been missed. The extra bonus is the parade of famous and near famous -- and ordinary -- people who populated his life. The anecdotes really payoff big time in giving the reader a true sense of the times in the full bloom of folk and pop music. Such a time won't come again, and unfortunately, neither will another Steve Goodman.
The book is lengthy, which may turn some people off, but worth a read even if you have to put it down a spell from time to time. The immense selection of photos is another incredible aspect of the book. And the design and layout are splendidly crafted as much as the writing.
Customer Reviews:
Before She Hit Her Stride..........2001-03-13
Mary Sheepshanks began with this charming effort. Having read and loved "A Price for Everything" and "Picking Up the Pieces," both superb, I can see the progression of Sheepshanks' talents. This is not a bad book, and it is certainly worth reading, but the characters are not as finely drawn as in her later novels. Our heroine, Flavia the Flautist, is not entirely a sympathetic character, as she flits mindlessly from one wrong situation to another to avoid facing reality. I found the juxtoposition of her brilliant musical career with her extreme naivete very hard to believe. Likewise, the hapless Gervaise, her schoolmaster husband, falls in love with her for no apparent reason, and is somewhat one-dimensional as well, so we really do not know what makes him tick. The "lover-from-hell," the famous conductor Antoine, is a swine for no particular reason, and the later love interest, Alistair, is a saint. Nevertheless, this is a fast, rather entertaining read, and we can see glimmers of the author's subtle and outrageous humor so evident in later works. "Facing the Music" is nowhere near the beautifully crafted novels that came after it, but I'm glad I read it; it makes me appreciate Sheepshanks' later books even more.
Wonderful touching story.......2000-12-08
I really loved this book. All the characters were very real. Flavia is very interesting and keeps the story moving along. Her story is continued in Off Balance. (It has already been published in England.)Ms. Sheepshanks is a great author!!
A reader fom Maine.......2000-01-01
This first book By Sheepshanks is not nearly as good as "A Price for Everything." I find the adultery too much; tasteless, and does not seem to "fit" in the story. I would, however, highly recommend "A Price for Everything!" I laughed out loud so much while I read that. It's good for your spirit.
Book Description
This is the work of a writer unafraid to gaze directly at characters challenged by crisis and pathology. But for readers who are willing to look, unblinkingly, along with the writer, there are unusual rewards.
Customer Reviews:
This debut indicated he was going far........2003-02-04
He also indicates he likes women, beer and dogs. In this wonderful collection of short fiction, Larry Brown takes you cruising to smokey bars searching for juicy women. He takes you back home where undesired wives are bitter at their non-willing partners. He takes you to the edge of a horrible accident caused by a child, vigilant at getting back at the driver for killing his dog. He also takes you to the backroads and side streets of Mississippi, where life is thick, humid and the people are thirsty for something to happen.
Mississippi adds another author to its list of greats.......2001-01-08
It has been my opinion over the last three years that the best authors in America writing today are southerners: Ellen Gilchrist, Nancy Peacock, Clyde Edgerton. Two of the best are from Mississippi: Lewis Nordan and Larry Brown.
I won't lie--Nordan is the better of the two, but "Facing the Music" is proof that Brown can hold his own. In this collection of short stories, Brown gives readers a real-life view of southern relationships. Full of drunkeness, violence and bitterness, these stories paint a true picture of love in the South. There is, however, a tenderness in some of these stories that make you understand why lovers even try in the first place.
Give this one a chance. You wont regret it.
Brown's talent for innovative fiction is astounding.......1999-05-28
Larry Brown has taken short fiction to its pique. The story "Julie, a Memory" is absolutely fascinating. All of his stories have within them the essence of real humanity. His stories are poignant and thought-provoking. This is wonderful reading for those who don't have time for novels.
Brilliant, bold beginning for great Southern writer.......1996-12-07
FACING THE MUSIC is a series of short
stories that Larry Brown wrote while still
trying to get his grasp on writing from
within. Even from the opening words of this
collection, one can discern that he's
speaking to the reader from the depths of his soul.
Following this lead, most of the stories
are engrossing personal portraits of the
rotting corpses within personal relationships.
Brown accurately arouses feelings in the reader
in most of the stories, especially the
harrowing 'Kubuku Rides'. And, supplies the occasional
chuckle and smile, as well.
The only drawback may be how experimental
some of his prose is (for instance, the
former story is written within a dialect)
But, nonetheless-when he communicates
the feelings and not the words on the page,
his thoughts are the kind that can keep you up late at night
pondering your own lives.
Book Description
Beginning with The Paris Diary in 1966 and continuing through four subsequent volumes, Ned Rorem, one of the world's foremost living composers, has chronicled his life with a directness and honesty rare in American letters. He writes as he lives, introducing himself to readers as an artist and as a gay man, a citizen of the world of the arts, as at home in Rome or Paris as he is in New York. But in this latest installment, Rorem finds himself alone after the death of Jim Holmes, his companion of 32 years. Grief-stricken, he struggles to find his way in the world, while seeing his 80th birthday celebrated nationwide with concerts and programs befitting a celebrity. As he heals, Rorem starts to snap with his usual sharp observations, riffing on topics as diverse as defining opera for the New York Times and considering personalities as famous as Judy Collins and Gore Vidal. With his typical (some might even say brutal) candor, disarming wit, and self-knowledge, Rorem once again provides insightful reflections in elegant prose that demonstrates his ease in a form few writers dare to brave.
Customer Reviews:
like May Sarton, Rorem is showing his age in this memoir.......2007-10-17
Ned Rorem, whose memoirs have been so important in my musical & intellectual career, is fading. This last memoir is a bit of a yawner, but it is pure Rorem. He does go on about composers other than himself for a change but it certainly isn't Rorem if it's not about himself. His sexual explicity is refreshing, as is his wordplay. I have friends who cannot stand him as a person, but having never met him but having read all his published written works & listened to all of his songs, I have great respect for his musicality as well as his intellect (ego notwithstanding). Anything he writes will be read by me; however, I cannot give this the rating I give his early journals.
Highly recommended and eminently readable, a few vignettes at a time or all at once........2007-07-08
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem, Facing the Night: A Diary (1999-2005) and Musical Writings is the latest installment of Rorem's musings on his life in his own words. An eclectic anthology of musings day by day, Facing the covers how Rorem, a gay man, had to cope with the terrible loss of Jim Holmes, his companion of thirty-two years. Overwhelmed with grief, he searched for the path to continue in an ever-turning world, even has his eightieth birthday was celebrated nationwide with concerts and programs as is often done for celebrities. Facing the Night's topics range from the profound matters of life itself, to discussions of nuances in efforts to translate works, to reflections on the myriad dimensions of music and much more. "Music has nothing to do with intelligence, or even with culture - or how do you account for so many educated intellectuals, including major creative writers and painters like Kafka and Picasso, being tone-deaf? Nor does music improve us so much as make us more of what we already are - or how do you account for Nero fiddling while Rome burns, or Nazis playing Beethoven quartets to drown the prisoners' screams? Music is not morality, and many a miraculous musician, starting with Wagner, is no better than he should be. To use music as therapy is to belittle the composer." Highly recommended and eminently readable, a few vignettes at a time or all at once.
Customer Reviews:
Jesus Christ teams up with Metallica and others...!.......1999-06-02
Excellent material to be used with our churches' youth. Learn how to use positively bands like Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Van Halen, Poison, Crash Test Dummies, and others, in order to spread God's message of justice, love, equality and true Christian life with meaning.
Book Description
Deepens understandings of key issues about multiculturalism in music education. Covers a broad range of the world's musics: Japanese, Native American, Australian Aborigine, South African, Hispanic, African-American, Israeli, Hawaiian, Amazon Indian, Tennessee Mountain, and more. Based on a Northwestern University Music Education Leadership Seminar.
Average customer rating:
- A first-rate novelist and very poor thinker
- Bernard Horn is too much the adoring disciple
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Facing the Fires: Conversations With A.B. Yehoshua (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art)
Bernard Horn , and
Abraham B. Yehoshua
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Mr. Mani (Harvest in Translation)
ASIN: 0815604939 |
Customer Reviews:
A first-rate novelist and very poor thinker .......2004-10-20
These interviews are with one of the finest Hebrew language writers working today. Yehoshua is an outstanding storyteller and creator of character.
However as a thinker he tends to return to a few fixed ideas, ideas which in some cases are based on ignorance. One of these ideas is that the Jews in the Diaspora had no real creative power or identity of their own. The second is that the Jewish state should help create an Arab state within the total land West of the Jordan, and that while withdrawing all Jews from it the state of Israel should support and encourage the development of a large Arab minority within it. In other words Yehoshua is for a Judenrein Arab state, and a Jewish state which is in good part Arab. And for no Diaspora at all.
This book does not probe Yehoshua very deeply. He does talk about his own literature with some insight. But the questions could have been deeper and the book a lot better.
Bernard Horn is too much the adoring disciple.......1999-08-29
After having read four of A.B. Yehoshua's novels, I can state with confidence that he is one of the finest writers around today; however, Mr. Yehoshua's political views are nothing if not controversial and Bernard Horn does the reader a disservice by tossing him one cream puff question after another.
Average customer rating:
- An excellent survey of modern Irish poetic traditions.
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Facing the Music:: Irish Poetry in the Twentieth Century.
Eamon Grennan
Manufacturer: CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Quick of It: Poems
ASIN: 1881871290
Release Date: 1999-01-01 |
Book Description
In Facing the Music, poet and critic Eamon Grennan gives comprehensive and imaginative life to the modern Irish poetic tradition. With Yeats as his starting point, these essays constitute a suite of intimate engagements with the matter and manner of the poetic intelligence as it declares itself in poets as diverse as Kavanagh, Muldoon, Kinsella, and McGuckian, and as it is found in the work of James Joyce and John McGahern. What most distinguishes this luminous collection is its author's tolerant breadth of response, his ability to sympathize equally with poets whose creative aims and means are very different from one another, but who between them compose much of the map of modern and contemporary Irish poetry. Such sympathetic readings give the reader a powerful sense of how Irish poetry in this century has kept pace with the often intractable public and private life of the island, north and south. Facing the Music reveals the workings of the intuitive spirit of poetry in the moral life of twentieth-century Ireland. Eamon Greenan is the Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Professor of English at Vassar College.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent survey of modern Irish poetic traditions........2000-02-04
Poetic and critic Grennan provides a fine, comprehensive review of the modern Irish poetic tradition, using Yeats as a starting point and providing essays which consider the modern evolution of Irish poetry. An excellent survey of authors and titles evolves in an absorbing, intriguing discussion which will attract any with special interest in Irish poetry.
Book Description
A guide to cancer treatment relief through art therapy
Art therapy involves using art creation to release emotions felt by patients suffering life-threatening diseases. This book provides new theoretical insights into the value of art therapy for cancer sufferers.
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