Och, every Scots should have a copy!! Maurice Lindsay is a well-known poet, broadcaster and writer on many aspects of Scottish life and Literature (see his Castles of Scotland for one). He has written several on Burns already.

If it touched Burns, it's listed here. This is not a collection of Burns poems, but a companion to them. An excellent work for people just becoming acquainted with Scotland's beloved poet and need to understand the poetry better. Many editions of Burns works have glossaries to help with the Scots, but it still leaves the general reader or student with a lot of questions. This book fills in the gaps, so should be used as a study companion piece to books with Burns' complete works.

Highly recommended for fans of Burns wanting to understand the man and the period he lived.

Just about every person, place, or thing mentioned in the songs and poems of Robert Burns (1759-1796) is given a paragraph or two. Indispensible encyclopedia on the "most gifted British soul" of the 18th century.

This is just a great deal! OXFORD Dictionaries have both British and American spellings, e.g., organise (or U.S. organize), and the "LITTLE" one also follows this pattern. It has a very good range of words (+51000 entries) well defined and presented in a short format -small and compact- protected with a hard cover that makes it easy to carry everywhere. I think it's one of the best you can purchase and it's well worthed its value.

This new well-defined dictionary is a great way to look up words, if you are a "gotta run" kind of person. You can easily slip it into your pocket and whip it right out and look up a word. I recommend this dictionary to any reader who is on the go.

The Bee Gees best friend David English has a talent for writing children-style books (i.e. The Bunburys). This novella was his start and it's a true, humorous tale of the Bee Gees from thier start to around 1984. It's more an adult book than a child's and is tons of fun. Illustrator Alex Brychta does a fantastic job of humorously portraying all the characters in the Bee Gees life. This makes a great gift for a true Bee Gees fan.

Well...to read Bacchylides (in Robert Fagles'
translation) after having read Pindar (in C.M. Bowra's
translation--Penguin Classics) is to read (for me)
shorter, fresher, clearer poetry.
Yet, strangely, in his "Introduction" Fagles finds
it necessary to defend Bacchylides against the greater
fame and tradition of admiration for Pindar -- but
Fagles does a very good job of making his case for
Bacchylides (and, of course, the poetry speaks
in translation in favor of Bacchylides as well).
Interestingly, Bowra has written the "Foreword" for
Fagles' edition of Bacchylides. Bowra says that
Bacchylides is hard to translate -- but the advantage
for Fagles is that Bacchylides has had few translations,
since the remains of his poetry were not known to
modern times until 1896. Bowra says that since Fagles
is not hampered by so many previous earlier versions
of translations, he makes almost a fresh start, and
with unusual courage, judgment, and creative insight

has produced a work which is both a faithful translation
of Bacchylides as well as a work of art in its own right.
That is high praise indeed, from one classical translator
to another.
In his "Introduction," Fagles admits early on that
the usual perception of Bacchylides has been that he
was considered "a dull and slight, or, a sweet and
sometimes charming practitioner of the kind of poetry
which Pindar created with profundity and magnificence."
But Fagles won't let that unfair judgment go...so
Pindar is by far the greater poet, is he? --well,
Bacchylides handles the genre differently, with his
own distinct virtues, and he is interested in different
things from Pindar. Fagles says that Bacchylides does
not consider himself to be a prophet as Pindar did.
Bacchylides stands back from his work and "prefers to
consider himself a craftsman." The element of
narrative (as in Homer) is more important to Bacchylides
than in Pindar. Fagles says, "Bacchylides lacks the
inwardness of Pindar...He is cooler, brighter, more
objective." Fagles says that in narrative grace and
crisp elegance, Bacchylides is the superior to Pindar.
This volume is divided into sections of different
types of poems: Epinician Odes [14] (to honor victorious
athletes in the various games held in ancient Greece--
Isthmian Odes, Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes, Nemean Odes);
Dithyrambs [15-27] (concerning various mythic figures--
The Sons of Antenor, Heracles, Theseus [2 poems], Io,
Idas, Cassandra, Pasiphae, Chiron) -- Fragments, Fragments
of Uncertain Genre, and Doubtful Pieces.
There is also a section of "Notes" in the back to
explain some aspects of the poems.
Though Bacchyides' sentences tend to be a bit more
complete, to me personally, I get the same freshness
from reading Fagles' renderings of these poems in
their short, clear impact after reading the rather
turgid Pindar (in translation), as I get when
I read Emily Dickinson after having had enough
of a dose of bombastic, droning, tedious
Walt Whitman in his longer, "prophetic"
pieces. Walt can be glorious, mystic, intimate,
delicate -- but he can also be tiresome.
Try Bacchylides for a refreshing easement.
_______________
Men can maneuver no hold
Over wealth or stubborn war
Or the feuds that rock a state --
But raking her clouds from land to land,
Destiny -- that Pandora -- ranges.
-- Bacchylides.
* * * * * * * * *

A delightful book for kids of all ages! Each page of this book has delightful, light, charming prose. The illustrations by Maurice Sendak put the final touches on a lovely, well-bound volume of reading for a family to share or a child to escape to a cozy window-seat and read. I recommend this book for someone who wants to give a nice, lasting gift to a special child or friend.

Levy's book is filled with explorations of neat themes in Lovecraft such as attics (vs. cellars), dreamworlds, stairways dug from underground up... The book's charm as well as weakness is that it points out Lovecraft's relation to other thinkers (Poe, Hawthorne, Freud, Einstein, Le Fanu) but doesn't get bogged down working those relations out.

Some of the most bizarre and surrealistic work's ever written, and incorporateing symbolism, anarchy, nihilism, and even a bit of hyper-exestentialism, these play's ,with their manic energy and intense insanity, manage to confuse the reader into a state of dream-like confusion. They portray wildly exaggerated character's, often vile and deranged, who move about in a meaningless world ; one where senseless behaivor, demented humor, and unexpected associations are the norm. It's nihilism taken to it's extreme with a perfect blend of fantasy, comedy, and absurdity. These plays take us on a journey where rules are nearly non-existent. All limits, rationality, and logic are pushed to the breaking point until destroyed completely and we're liberated from the chains of reason. Any fan of the strange or unusual should get this book and check their sanity at the door.

What a wonderful collection of stories. These "12 American Voices" will captivate both you and your students... the tales on the accompanying CD are so engaging that I found myself listening to them in my car - for pleasure! The activities that surround each story are interesting, relevant and expertly designed to immerse students in the topic at hand. My students LOVED the book, and are only disappointed by the fact that they have finished it - they want MORE! I highly recommend this book for teachers and learners of English of practically all ages!

A Word From the Loki combines poetic genius and personal experiance to create a masterpeice. Riordan is up there with the greats, Keats, Yates. Eliot. The book contains poes about the authors childhood in Ireland as well as object-oriented poems and to top it all A Word From the Loki, creative, imaginative. A true marvel.

I read this book aloud to my sixth grade reading class. They loved it, and always wanted to hear more. Its also a great way to introduce students to some of the history of China, Japan and US involvement in the war there.

Boys can be picky readers, so I always take notes if they actually love a book. My 8 year old carried this book everywhere and told be about it every night for a week. Besides Redwall or Harry Potter, this is the first book he has raved about.

I told my young son about what a good book this was when I read it growing up, encouraging him to read it as well. He too enjoyed it, and I read it again in my fifties. Excellent book, would certainly encourage children to read it. Now in his teens, we still use a memorable quote from the book, "the heart understands without words".