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It has a fun and clear approach to covering all the essential pronunciation features such as word stress, rhythm patterns, and thought groups, as well as consonant and vowel sounds.
Students enjoy using this book and tapes because of the engaging and varied activities. Whether you are experienced or inexperienced at teaching pronunciation, Targeting Pronunciation a great book to teach from. I recommend the book and audiocassette package: ISBN 0-395-94540-2. It's the best deal and each student has a set of tapes for home practice.
This appears to be the best book I have come across.
It is very detailed and easy to understand and beats the current book and CD offerings like American Accent training.
A definite must buy if you are into accent reduction for individuals or training.
Ian Stern
Holistic Enterprise
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Sue Style here tackles the difficult task of giving us a culinary portrait of a nation which, as she points out in her introduction, is 'at least four countries rolled into one,' not counting influences from neighboring countries and cultures. The key, she says, is in realizing that Swiss food, wine, and tastes aren't monolithic, but rather vary (sometimes widely) from canton to canton.
Aided by John Miller's skilled photography of landscapes (sometimes I wonder if it's even possible to take an unattractive photo of Switzerland), people, and ... not least of all ... food, Style not only gives us a wide variety of recipes, but also shows how those foods fit into the broader Swiss lifestyle. Bread, cheese, chocolate, and sausage ... each gets its own chapter, as do Swiss winemaking (who knew? -- 'Many Swiss wines never make it beyond the confines of the canton, let alone the country' -- yet some are apparently quite nice) and the art of the Swiss innkeeper.
In all, whether you have no experience of Swiss food at all, or are a former visitor or resident looking to recreate happy memories, Sue Style's book seems like an excellent way to explore the surprisingly varied world of Swiss tastes.
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As the title implies, there is more to this memoir than just an account of Ms. Miller's father's final days with Alzheimer's. She discusses much of her father's and her family's lives. The relationship of her parents, at least as she remembers it, was intriguing. I would like to have known either or both of her parents. Also, I bought the book from having read the first few pages in a local bookstore about James Nichols'-- the name of Ms. Miller's father-- feelings about pacificism. This is a brilliant first chapter that make you want to read more. Ms. Miller writes clear, beautiful prose.
Just as important as Mr. Nichols' story is also the story of Ms. Miller and her own frustrations, anger, love and all the other emotions that a child/caretaker feels as she watches the disintegration of a brilliant, scholarly and loving father. She attempts to be completely honest about her own feelings--it seems to be as honest as one can be in tackling such a painful and personal subject.
Mr. Nichols was lucky to have such a loving daughter. We, the readers, are likewise fortunate that she has written what had to be a very difficult book for her to write.
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The Distinguished Guest revolves around the visit by Lily Maynard, who became a literary superstar in her 70s for her memoirs of a failed marriage and her fiction about the challenges of integration in the 50s and 60s. She is suffering from Parkinson's Disease and needs help. Plans are being made for her to move into a nursing home, but there is a wait for a place. In the meantime, she is staying with her son, Alan, and his wife. The house is constantly filled with visiting writers and scholars who want to consult with and interview the famous Lily. Each character is strongly alienated from each other character based on an incomplete understanding of that character's perspective and experience. None of them make much of an attempt to bridge the communications' gaps. The book provides a useful perspective on the problems of achieving closeness among adults, and adds helpful insights into family roles.
The book has an unusual and rewarding style. It shifts seamlessly among literary snippets, old letters, internal thoughts, dialogue, and visual images to provide a broad perspective on the issues.
The Distinguished Guest also addresses the philosophical issue of what one's responsibility is towards fostering racial equality and integration. The book has a lot of useful observations about that issue that will be especially informative to those who missed the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s. Those perspectives launch themselves forward into providing insight for today's society.
I had the pleasure of listening to the book be read in an unabridged version by Frances Cassidy. She does a marvelous job of capturing the essence of each character, their directness or wiliness, with her easy shifts in accent, pacing, and pauses. I felt like I was listening to a great one woman dramatic performance on Broadway. I suspect that the book is harder to understand without the benefit of this outstanding reading, available from Books on Tape.
After you read this story, I suggest that you write a series of letters to those you care about to explain your feelings about them, and what your own motivations are in life. These disclosures can be a healing balm that soothes the chafing caused by misunderstanding your pursuit of your convictions as representing a lack of love for the person. By revealing what you meant, you can overcome negative presumptions that create a hurtful distance.
Enjoy being closer, even if that means feeling less distinguished in the process.
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Although there isn't a huge plot, just the going's on of a family, I flew through this book.
SEVERAL VOICES PAINT DIFFERENT PICTURES:
The four voices you hear in this book are that of the Mom, Dad, eldest son Mack born before their autistic son Randall, and their second oldest daughter Nina born after. In this family, birth order is everything. Sue Miller's magnificent writing portrays how different a home can be from different eyes. Randall is the focus point and from him the whole family pivots. It is amazing how much one person can affect an entire family.
STORY IS TOLD THROUGH RECOLLECTION OF SIMPLE EVENTS, THE ONES THAT SHAPE LIVES
Sue Miller's vivid writing makes you feel what her characters are experiencing as they recall these events in their lives. Remember times when you felt your life just changed or when a routine defined you? It can be a simple thing, but it signals to you that all things in your life had just changed or just a little bit about you was revealed, that you didn't even know. That simple moment, when you felt like a grown-up, one with decisions to make, responsibilities to act on. That moment when something you never noticed before became significant. All these factors build a life. In this book you can see how these individual factors seen from different eyes can mean so little or so much.
A SIMPLE STORY
This book has no profound insight or sweeping moment when the characters get on with their life in a different fashion, but it does show how events shape each person differently. It is a simple story of a family and the events that shaped their lives. It makes us all think about the big and little things we recall as a kid. Given an adult perspective they take on all new meanings. Toss in a different perspective and they are more different still. When you read this book you think a bit differently of your parents and your children and their lives in respect to you.
Great writing, a simple story of complicated lives.