After a couple of months I knew how to speak hebrew: Not fluently, but understanding and it's improving all the time.The course is very well put and it makes it easy and fun to learn. I can now, already, communicate with the natives and that's thanks to this book. I save the fifth star though, for the lack of exercise tasks.

This is probably the best book you can get if you want to learn how to speak Hebrew quickly. You should get the tapes that come with it also, and you should order the book and tapes from your local bookstore. Amazo n is a bad place to buy books...

I chose this particular item to learn Welsh simply because I have used the 'Hugo'-brand of linguistic aids before, and they almost always present a foreign language in very easy lessons while combining both vocabulary and grammar in the way it should be done: by building on previous lessons and gradually expanding your knowledge. In addition to these features of 'Hugo', this product also does what most language products do not do, and that is to provide phonetic transcription. In other words, it tells you, the learner, how to pronounce a Welsh word using English syllables, so it is as easy as when you learned English many years ago. I gave this product only four stars, however, because while I know that phonetics are never exact in translation, the examples in this product were not the best. However, they are the ONLY ones on the marketplace, so....enjoy this item. It is the easiest method to learn modern Welsh.

Cymraeg, the language of the Welsh people, is an ancient language which usually takes a lot of effort to learn. This book tries to simplify that task. It also makes it fun to learn Welsh. This is an excellent book for Welsh beginners, experts and what the Welsh call "il - dysgwyr"- literally "econd learners."Buy the cassette version from Amazon and hear Welsh as it is spoken!

Hugo Young of the Guardian gives us a fascinating and revealing portrait of Britain's relations with the European Union. He is passionately committed to the European Union, but his book presents much information very useful to those who oppose it.

He recounts that in the 1971-72 Parliamentary debates, "Ministers did not lie, but they avoided telling the full truth. They refrained from stating categorically that the law of the European Community would have supremacy over British law." "Nor did ministers state that the European Communities Act would be, in practice, irrevocable." "Enthusiasts for entry, as we have seen in the cases of Edward Heath and Geoffrey Howe, felt it prudent to mask the radical nature of the transaction they were proposing." He cites Howe's admission that the Government concealed much from Parliament. And he recalls that a Government lawyer said, "Open admission of what was being done to parliamentary sovereignty would be 'so astounding' as to put the whole Bill in danger."

None repeated the clarity of Foreign Secretary Lord Home when he told the Lords in August 1961: "let me admit at once that the Treaty of Rome would involve considerable derogation of sovereignty." Its consequences would, he said, be "different in kind from any contract into which we have entered before."

EU supporters said that EC entry would bring economic growth. When it didn't, they said the Single Market would. When it didn't, they said the Exchange Rate Mechanism would - Young remarks, with considerable under-statement, "The story of the ERM was not an entirely happy one." When that failed, bringing the worst slump for sixty years, they said that the euro would bring growth.

He presents the real issue: "The serious case, surely, is ... about national control over big decisions. The EU renders collective a decision-making process, in some areas, that was once exclusively national." Entering the euro would end our national democratic control over policy: is this what we want?

"A history of Britain's relations with Europe since 1945 as seen by the country's leadership. Thoroughly researched, powerfully written, intense and passionate. A book of the decade, not just the year" -The Economist

Verlomme's guide to travel by cargo ship provides the essential details for those interested in exploring the possibilities of cargo ship travel. The guide is practical -- including sample itineraries of shipping companies and their contact details, sections on what to expect and what to avoid -- and is organised in a highly useable format. Having been first translated from the French in 1995, though written in 1993 and updated in 1994 the fare structures are in need of further updating, but the consolidation of the contact details of so many shipping companies in one location makes the book a valuable reference guide.

This is a great travel book I'd love to go on a Cargoship to Russia and the CIS.I wish it was updated for 2000/2001 thought.

This book is very informative for women planning to spend time in the wilderness. The title specifies thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, but many of the topics covered are of interest to women who love spending time outdoors. Input from numerous sources is well blended to offer balanced, solid advice. I was surprized at the diversity of topics covered. The bibliography is comprehensive, very helpful when you want to dig deeper. If you're looking for answers to issues concerning women in the wilderness, this is the book to buy.

This is a book long awaited by women thinking about hiking, or planning to hike the Appalachian Trail. It was worth the wait. Beverly has taken the responses of experienced women long-distance hikers from surveys and questionnaires and skillfully woven them into a narrative form that gives answers to all the questions a prospective female hiker might have: how to prepare for a long-distance hike; what clothing and gear works best; safety, health, nutrition, sanitation, privacy; what about the folks back home; self-image, motivation, strength, and determination; and the benefits of doing a long-distance hike, facing challenges, and reaching your goals. The bibliography of 143 items was compiled by a research librarian and Appalachian Trail backpacker and includes A.T. guidebooks, planning guides, books on backpacking and outdoor skills, and a special list of "Women Outdoors" books that includes highly motivating stories of women who set out to do daring things and achieved their goals. This book is the result of a collaborative effort, with real answers from hundreds of real women, including Beverly herself. The other current book for women backpackers (Adrienne Hall's "Backpacking"--a Ragged Mountain Press Woman's Guide) plus "Women & Thru-Hiking on the Appalachian Trail" are a perfect combination for a woman contemplating a long-distance backpacking trek. I have read and enjoyed both of these excellent books.

I purchased this book, because I love the work of Victor Hugo and was interested in this aspect of his spirituality. But the writing is terrible. Most of it seems to be a drug addled commentary on Hugo's later life by an unsympathetic critic. The writing is so bad as to frustrate the most patient of readers. If you love the work of Hugo or the philosophy of romance in literature, avoid this waste of ink and paper.

I had heard of this book for sometime before actually reading it and when I finally ordered it and began my reading; I was off on the most amazing adventure of metaphysical ideas I've ever encountered. As a student of Spiritualism as well as the Alan Kardec inspired spiritualist philosophy known as Spiritism from a historical and sociological perspective, this book brings to life the intensity of those 19th century psychonauts who in living with human mortality in a much more immediate way than we do now, documents their explorations of one of the fundamental questions of existence- do we survive death.
And the answers to those pointed questions that were revealed to the Hugo circle during his period of exile from France are simply breathtaking. First is their sheer poetic verbal majesty, secondly in the intimations of a universal mind that is both the embodiment of that "love which steers the stars" of Dante's "Divine Comedy" to the impersonal karmic justice that minimizes the inflated human ego in the scheme of things.
I cannot recomend this book highly enough, it will remain with you for thought & contemplation long after you've finished the final page.

I am telling you, what a trip! Well if you can believe it, the table did rock! Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is in excile on a lonely island and to pass time, he and his retinue conduct seances. Animals, of course, are the incarnations of criminals. (How good to know, that Stalin is now a dung beatle.) The Dove of the Ark had been guided by God to the landing place for Noahs gigantic boat. Not only animals, but also plants and stones knew what crime they had committed. Why was such knowledge not granted to man? Animals are prisons of the soul. The animal sees man and glimpses the angels. Forgiveness is Noah's Ark. Well, I think this is worth reading, even though it comes down from another century. Be curious! Gerborg

This book took me from 1 year of high school French (10 years ago) to proficient conversational French in a very short period of time. I never even needed to listen to the cassette. This book doesn't waste time on the details of the language. Instead it focuses on practical, every-day usage of the language. If you are truly motivated to learn French, this book is for you.

I've never studied French before, but I plan to go to Paris next year, and I decided to try to learn some quick French. I picked up this book thinking I'd get a handle on some key phrases, but I got so much more! I tried to spend an hour or two each day working on the vocabulary and grammar, and now I can speak fairly decent French only after two or three months! Granted, I think it does take more than the recommended hour per day, and this book is for those with real determination to learn the language. If you want to just know the key phrases, this book is probably not for you. However, I definitely would recommend the Hugo language books, and I plan on tackling Italian and German next!

The writers have done an admirable job in compacting the French grammar into one 250-page book and four audio cassettes, which makes this package very cost-effective for the minimalist buyer. The set aims to take the absolute beginner to everyday conversational and light reading level, while providing a solid foundation for further study. The structure of the course is very logical: Grammatical rules are explained, followed by sample sentences demonstrating their usage, and exercises, the solutions of which are revealed in the Appendix.

The book is comprised of 12 chapters, the first of which introduces the reader to French by a pronunciation guide. Concentrating equally on everyday topics, such as commenting on the weather or telling the time, as well as grammatical structures, it culminates in topics as complex as the past historic tense and the subjunctive in the final chapter. Each chapter introduces about 100 new words, resulting in a 1200 word vocabulary at the end of the course. All words are conveniently listed in a dictionary, French to English as well as English to French, in the Appendix.

The book is a paperback, which is probably the only undesirable quality of this set. Foreign language books tend to get a lot of wear when used as a reference overseas, and a paperback does not help maintain their lifespan for the next trip. And one caveat about the three months promised in the title: This ambitious goal is realizable only if the reader devotes at least a couple of hours a day to the course. Studying for less than an hour each day will most likely extend the schedule to a year.

Students who are already familiar with a second (ideally a Romance or Western European) language, and feel confident about picking up another through studying the grammar should definitely consider this set. On the other hand, people who enjoy to assimilate a language with an abundance of pictorial examples will probably not be pleased with this method.

The Body Sculpting Bible is the best women's weight training book I have ever read.

The authors present a vast collection of information on nutrition, motivation, and outline an exercise plan that is tailored to a woman's needs.

Unlike other books, The Body Sculpting Bible for Women is extremely well-organized, easy-to-follow, and comprehensive.

The exercise descriptions are very well written and detailed and the photos provide proper form which is key for success.

The appendix includes muscle charts, and a section on exercising during pregnancy and other special circumstances which is invaluable.

Finally, the authors present a sophisticated yet understandable training schedule which provides variety and intensity as needed.

Well done and recommended. Excellent job!

There are many books available on fitness, all claiming to provide the perfect plan for creating a great body. Unfortunately, most of the books I've read are basically refurbished material packaged nicely. This was my experience up until I purchased the body sculpting bible. The author has done an exceptional job of developing new and exciting material that works wonders! I've been training with weights for over 2 years now and consider myself very experienced when it comes to fitness. I must say that after reading the awesome information in this book, especially the incredibly detailed exercise descriptions and 14 day principles, I have become somewhat humbled in respect to the fact that I now recognize that I actually knew little about how to get the best results from my workouts.

This books has truly helped me to filter out the chaffe and demistify misconceptions that only held me back. I am proud to say that after only 4 weeks that I have lost over ten pounds and have undoubtedly noticed my arms and legs getting considerably toner. I still have a way to go, but I now have the tools to get there. In summary, this is a Great Book for any woman wanting to make life-long changes.

After looking at a variety of books on the subject of weight loss, nutrition and weight lifting (for tone and shape) I finally settled on this book. It is a GREAT book geared toward females that are ready to take control of their bodies. I found the book to be very unintimidating and I liked the informal verbiage.

There are several sections to the book. The 1st details common myths and misconceptions about nutrition and fitness. The 2nd section covers the power of the mind and how to harness your own positive thinking. I LOVED this section - very motivational! (it amazes me that other books on the topic of the body neglect this subject entirely). The 3rd section coves the basics of body sculpting and is very informative, especially for people new to the subject. The 4th section lays out a nutrition program for optimum health, but also helps you understand how nutrition impacts your body. The 5th section focuses on rest and recovery and the rest of the book details the weight training program (very well laid out, with information on correct techniques and posture).

This book is like having a personal health and fitness instructor, geared especially for women. I HIGHLY recommend it!

This book was a very detailed account of the life of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who married into the Greek Royal Family. This complex and fascinating personality makes an excellent subject for a biography. However, I felt that the account, though full of information, could have been shortened slightly and still would have given us enough information.

I would imagine that most people outside the ranks of royalty enthusiasts have never heard of Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Andrew of Greece. If anything, they know her as Prince Philip's mother. And that's a pity, because Hugo Vicker's new biography reveals that Alice Battenberg was a truly remarkable individual.Alice was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, which must have seemed her only interesting point at the time of her birth. Her father was morganatic (half-royal) and her mother a princess from a minor German state. Her first years were spent among her multitudinous family (Vickers provides footnotes and trees to help sort everyone out), in the background and unnoticed. Alice's marriage was hardly a glamorous match. Prince Andrew was a younger son of the King of Greece and while charming, not all that interesting. Alice lived quietly until the 1920s, when a revolution in Greece and her own personal troubles caused her a certain notoriety. Vickers does a good job of covering Alice's physical and emotional ailments and is most successful in describing her growing religious faith. In this Alice is similar to her two Russian Aunts, Tsarina Alexandra and Grand Duchess Elizabeth. During World War II Alice protected a Jewish family at grave risk to herself, so that she was later declared Righteous Among the Gentiles by Israel.After World War II Alice continued to live in the background, now overshadowed by her only son, Prince Philip, who became the consort of Queen Elizabeth II. She remained a loving and wise part of the Royal Family however, as memories of her from her grandchildren and other relations attest.Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece deserves a place in the library of anyone interested in royalty as well as anyone who cares to read about honorable and decent people.

This really is a most enjoyable read about a fascinating woman. Princess Alice was the Mother of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of HM Queen Elizabeth II. If you want to understand the family Prince Philip grew up in I can think of no better book. Princess Alice was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and married Prince Andrew of Greece. Prince Philip is her only living child and her youngest. This book is a must for those interested in the Battenberg family of which Princess Alice was a member. Having read about Princess Alice's Mother, Princess Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt (eldest sister of Tsarina Alexandra) who married Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Marquis and Marchioness of Milford-Haven) this book really is worthwhile but stands very well alone. There are loads of fantastic pictures. I highly recommend it.

I had been learning Turkish for about two or three months when I read this book and I went through it in 2 days (about 5 hrs). I think it's a good introductory text and with regards to grammar, remarkably complete. I've learned things from this book that books dedicated to Turkish grammar had forgotten to mention. There are 4 tapes and they start off slower than another language pack I have for Turkish. I wish there were more conversation dialogues. This is the thing that is missing. This pack along with the Colloquial Turkish (ArIn and Sinan BayraktoloGu) pack seem to cover everything I think I'll need. I'm quite happy with this book.

p.s. Don't let the negative reviews of people who don't seem to be able to put in the effort to learn something put you off! Turkish is no harder than any other language to learn.

For a 3 month , independent trip through Turkey my wife decided to learn rudimentary conversational Turkish. She bought the very expensive...US/ FSI Turkish Basic Course (Level I ) with 12 tapes. She was very happy with the course. BUT..after borrowing the Hugo book from the local library , she wanted to get the Hugo Course with tapes. I was fortunate to find her a copy (with tapes) via a re-seller. The price was 10% of the FSI Course.
She also used the extremely inexpensive LV Thomas "Elementary Turkish" booklet.

Comparisons and Opinions?

The FSI course is massive, and the only way to describe it is to pretend that you are a 2 month old baby, who hears over and over again something that they very slowly begin to understand... and master rapidly.

The Hugo Course is comparable to a high school course. It comes fast... perhaps too fast, and overwhelms. However, when you 'crack the book' and actually "study"... it is all there. But you need to invest 2-3 hours per day to really master the material. My wife says that it is simpler , more logical, and ultimately easier than the FSI course. But she says the FSI course is very good, because it has the bulk to allow multiple repitions and incremental mastery. She also feels that the speakers on the FSI cassette are more varied and easier to understand than the Hugo course.

For 6 months, 3 hours/day she has been studying.That's her opinion.

For me? I didn't have the time to invest.I found the LV Thomas grammar book, a small Eng-TK/TK-Eng pocket dictionary , a Turkish co-worker, and a lot of listening to my wife's inane questions in Turkish, which she insisted I answer, helped me to achieve the comfort level that I wanted.

She loves the Hugo course, and that book is what she plans to take to Turkey. However...this is the 4th language she has learned. And she that she intends to continue learning it. And says that she would consider spending shelling out for the FSI Level II course when the time comes.

The other reviews for this book are a bit too harsh in my opinion. I have used several Turkish langage texts and this is one of the best in terms of completeness. The first four chapters were the dullest for me, but after I had learned a little Turkish I found how valuable this book was. Actually I purchased the 1992 edition so I can't comment on the most recent edition. I sincerely hope that the publisher and author use this book as a basis for another book. If the first part of the book were more like Pollard and Pollard's Teach Yourself Turkish, then the book would probably be more accessible to those who only want to know a little Turkish, but there are too many books out there that barely cover Turkish grammar. Especially I like Rona's coverage of subject and object participles. Pictures with Turkish captions would be very useful - lots of them. An updated version should include Rona's coverage of the grammar (and more if possible) as well as lots of pictures and then a small section for those persons who just don't want to dig into the grammar. Overall though, I give this book an 'A.'