The Oxford Canadian English dictionary is a must for all exchange students spending some time in beautiful Canada, and for everyone who wants to have a handy reference book and dictionary at home. It helped me enormously in my Canadian culture course, giving me information about Canadian people and events; for example, about Joyce Wieland, Greg Curnoe, the October crisis, but it also served me as a 'normal' dictionary. Terms and expressions are explained in an understandable manner so that non-native speakers of English have a chance to familiarize themselves with such words as 'draft dodger' or 'nuclear family'. The Oxford Canadian English dictionary is the best dictionary I've ever seen, and I can only recommend it to everyone who works with English or is interested in getting to know the English-speaking world.

The title may say "Canadian" but this dictionary is equally useful to Americans and other users or students of North American English. British and American English dictionaries often give little coverage of the other's special vocabulary (slang, idioms, regionalisms, bureaucratic terminology, etc), this Canadian Oxford Dictionary covers American, British and of course Canadian vocabulary. Even regionalisms are covered and lablelled as such. This dictionary has extensive geographical and biographical entries (covering the world). The IPA sytem is used and a handy IPA reference chart is printed on the bottom of each and every page. Each word entry includes etymological information. This dictionary also treats its readers like adults and does not shy away from `naughty` language. The appendixes are Canadian oriented. The paper, printing and binding are of a high quality and the dust jacket is attractive. The above mentioned features coupled with a low price make this dictionary a great buy.

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary was written by five Canadian lexicographers and originally published in June 1998. Wordsmiths regard this work as the Cadillac of Canadian dictionaries and the foremost authority on current Canadian English. It encompasses 130,000 entries, including 2,000 Canadian words, 500 Canadian regionalisms, 1,200 Canadian place names, 800 Canadian biographies and 300 Aboriginal people and cultural entries.

The book is well bound, with an Oxford blue hardcover made of a synthetic material called Kivar 5 which has gold foil stamping, called blocking, emblazoned on the spine and is protected by an attractive removable dust cover. The paper is high quality 30-lb lightweight bone white stock called Rampart Opaque. This type of paper allows the dark black text done in Swift font to be more legible and pleasing to the eye. The pages are thumb indexed and have attractive blue speckling on the outside edges.

This dictionary is of such a high quality both in content and construction, that it should be considered a mandatory reference book in every Canadian home, classroom, library and office.

"Classic Modern Homes of the Thirties" is an unabridged reprint of a book first published in 1940, and thus serves as a valuable historic document. But this introduction to the "modern" style of architecture is not just a book for historians: it is visually stunning achievement that will be appreciated by all who have a passion for the art and science of home architecture.

The book introduces the reader to 62 marvelous houses which exemplify the modern style. Architects represented include Gregory Ain, George Howe, Richard J. Neustra, Raphael S. Soriano, and many more. Detailed floor plans, exterior and interior photographs, and details of construction are included. The houses range in size from modest 1- or 2-bedroom homes to expansive, luxurious mansions.

This book is a spectacular introduction to the vocabulary of the modern period in architecture. The photographs and floor plans capture the bold interplay of geometric shapes, the experimentation with glass and other materials, the profusion of balconies and terraces, and above all, the concern with functionality that motivated the masters of the modern.

Co-authors James Ford and Katherine Morrow Ford have included a interesting introduction. Also included is a collection of brief statements by many of the featured architects.

This is a great book for those interested in American cultural history, interior design, home photography, and other subjects. But at its core this book is an excellent record of and tribute to one of the most remarkable movements in the history of home architecture.

This is a wonderful book combining insight into "modern" residential home architecture of the 30's with a view into the lives of those who designed and lived in them. Like all Dover books, this title is remarkable well printed which allows the reader to easily see all the floorplans, pictures and other images of these homes. The text tells the reader about the family the house was built for, their lifestyle and needs, the layout and construcion details and decorating details of their home. What is remarkable is how fresh many of these homes look today and how much recent modern architecture owes the pioneers who designed these homes. Very enjoyable... anyone who appreciates architecture and history will love this book.

I am so glad to find a reprint of this book! It has been impossible to return the one I have on loan. Some less known but notable architects like Pietro Belluschi are included along with the big names. Details such as floor plans and original cost per square foot are a bonus.

What an amazingly fun book. As an educational psychologist student I have found this book very helpful to develop a lifeskills training programme for children from the ages of 5 through to 18. I have even gone so far as to enjoy the opportunity of tuning out of the rat race myself to play with some of my own wacky ideas by completing some of the exercises. What a stress reliever! My 10 year old daughter can not put it down and I am dreading the moment she tells me that she has completed it as we have another 4 weeks of holiday left. Sweet celebrations for Katherine Q. Revoir for a successful masterpiece of fun.

As an ex-teacher, grandparent and presently author and creativity coach, I found myself wishing that I had a whole series of these books to work with. The activities aren't just designed to keep kids busy, as is the case with so many activity books I've reviewed. Rather, this one truly stimulates creativity, for example, by having kids imagine fantasy animals that could only exist in their own minds. The author's sense of humor and her own creativity come through on every page, and that alone is going to inspire kids. Respectful, thought provoking, educational, creative and fun! What more could you ask for? I bought the book as a gift but really enjoyed reading through it myself. I can't wait to see my young grandchild's eyes light up.

Fun, creative, and goes where other journal and activity books don't. It makes kids expand their thinking and use their imaginations with interesting ideas and inspiring illustrations that won't intimidate. A great birthday present.

Books on creativity are often interesting to read but almost impossible to translate into practice. Not so with this book.

This book broadened my personal definition of creativity; it challenged me to consider creativity as a core competency in more than just innovation. Distinguishing it from other books that I have read, it focuses more on the specific outcomes of creativity instead of the sometimes mysterious process of creativity. It makes the often implicit skills involved in creativity much more explicit.

On a practical note, it serves as a toolkit with an array of different assessment tools, exercises, and suggestions for generative work that can be tailored to different organizational needs at different times. We're currently using these tools in a healthcare setting, but I think they could be equally well applied to a myriad of other settings.

This book has been a great addition to my business bookshelf - accessible, easy to read, and full of useful suggestions - I think of it as a user's guide to fostering and tailoring creativity in the work place.

If you thought creativity was an elusive and muse-driven quality ascribed to only artistic types of people, this book will set you straight. Here is a tangible approach to making creativity work for you and your organization. It will help you assess your needs, select the most effective practices for your situation and identify the people you need for successful implementation. The straightforward format and accessible language makes this a practical handbook for any level of manager or consultant in organizations large and small.

Creativity at Work is a must read for anybody who wants their job to be more than just work. It surveys all of the elements of an organization and then clearly supports the reader on his/her professional journey with the necessary tools to attain results. It's well-written, easy to read and tells all of the stories one needs to stimulate their creativity and own ideas. It is the only book that I have read and finished believing that I could now add value to the folks I work with in innovative and concrete ways.

I have known Randall Hansen for several years and always been impressed with his level of knowledge and caring for the needs of job seekers. He and his wife Katherine have crafted an absolutely fabulous resource that all job seekers, from entry level to the most experienced, should find incredibly useful.

As the Founder and President of job board CollegeRecruiter.com, I make the final decision about which products to recommend to our users. "Dynamic Cover Letters" easily made the cut. It is a wonderful resource!

Steven Rothberg CollegeRecruiter[dot]com

I used this book to create my cover letter. Potential employers have praised my cover letter; a recruiter asked me if she could use the same format for her career search.

I purchased this book several years ago and have successfully utilized its information to obtain interviews and even job offers. The book provides a step-by-step guide to how to effectively communicate your qualifications in a concise and professional manner. I would recommend this book to others!

I have lost count of the number of times I've sat down with the book since the day I found it. Rarely do I have a goal in mind; instead, I simply open the book to a random page and start reading. Always, I find something interesting waiting for me on whatever page I select; often, I learn something new.

Briggs' scholarship is amazing, her research is exhaustive. Even the most fanatical of folklore enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find a character from British folklore missing from this work. (Briggs wrote in her preface that she originally planned to compile an encyclopedia of global folklore, "but to treat the fairies of the whole of Europe alone, even cursorily, would have been to produce a book ten times the size of this and founded on years of further research."

Certainly, Briggs treated British folklore with a thoroughness rarely seen in a milieu regarded by some as a children's fancy.

This book is nigh impossible to find, and an absolute necessity for anyone interested in Ireland, faeries, or folklore. Every page is bursting with myth and tradition, poetry and lore, much of it drawn from pre 19th century texts that give one a whole new perceptive on the Fair Folk (or the Gentry, or Themselves, or the Good Neighbours, and if you don't understand what I'm talking about get the book!) as seen from the point of view of those who have no doubt that they share their lands with a strange people. At the time of this review, I see that the current price of the book is $.... Please believe me: THIS IS WELL WORTH IT. I sought for ten years to find this book, paid fifty dollars from a used bookseller, and it has survived water-damage, three moves, and near constant perusal while losing none of its value or charm. This review is a plea: go to every bookseller, write to every publisher, and DEMAND this book be brought back into print.

I bought this book somewhere years ago and didn't look at it too hard. Every once in a while I'd pick it up and read about "Fairies" or "Hobgoblins" or "Brownies." I looked up "Tam Lin" after I read Pamela Dean's "Tam Lin." But it was only when I read "The Scarlet Letter" in my English class that I took a good look at this book. Some of the descriptions of Pearl--her elfish behavior, her red dress--and some other details reminded me of my Encyclopedia. So I started reading. It was hard going: there is no index. However, it was while browsing through the book that I found the most intriguing little tidbits of fairy lore.

When I informed my mother that I was using it as a major source for my English paper, she was skeptical--until she looked at the information at the front of the book. It's not a frivolous work. That is sometimes a problem--many quotations are in the original dialect or idiom, which can obscure the meaning.

This book is both interesting and useful.

Though I am a Japanese American born after WWII, I wanted to know what was going through the minds of the Japanese in Japan who decided to bomb Pearl Harbor and get involved in the conflict. This book got me about as close as I could get to talking to someone high up and powerful in the Japanese naval command. The highs, the lows, the delusions, the misconceptions, the hopes, aspirations - they are all clearly laid out. The account of Yamamoto's death and Ugaki's survival is better than an Indiana Jones-tale. The main thing you come away with is this man's patriotism and devotion to a misguided cause. Ugaki and Japan seriously misjudged their strength versus the power and resources of the United States and their allies.

Anyone who calls themselves a true historian of the Pacific War should read this book. There are a variety of things that make this "Fading Victory" unique and important. First and foremost, Ugaki was one of Japan's leading military men and he was privy to the Japanese planning of much of the Pacific War. His mistakes, conceptions of the wartime situation, and commentary on the Allied victories and defeats create a new dimension to the Pacific War that standard histories do not provide. Furthermore, the account, unlike other wartime accounts, was not doctored or recalled years after the event. This means that what Ugaki wrote in, say June 4, 1942, is how Ugaki perceived the situation as it happened. Finally, "Fading Victories" also details the gradual defeat of Japan and how a Japanese patriot perceived it. It is almost sad to hear Ugaki in 1945 speak of countering raids by hundreds of American planes with a mere handful of Jpanese aircraft. If this were not enough, Ugaki also writes extremely well and the editors did a fantastic job of correcting him and presenting what really happened. The net result is that Ugaki's own biases become readily apparent. Do not pass this one up!

I wondered whether this was going to be a boring self-serving narrative, but once I started reading it, it was so interesting that I couldn't stop. Ugaki details his day to day activities and lets you know his opinions and insights as he goes along. You get to like the guy, even though you know, in some cases, he's trying to fool himself about who's going to win the war. He is involved in just about everything in the Pacific War, and he narrates nicely. One of the best parts that you look forward to is where he and Yamamoto are shot down by U.S. planes. (Yamamoto is killed, but Chief of Staff Ugagki survives miraculously.) - The editor of this book every now and then corrects Ugaki (in italics) when Ugaki makes claims, such as ships sunk and planes shot down. This is extremely helpful, else you might think like Ugaki. This way you can sort of analyze Ugaki and where he's coming from. - Ugaki, the consumate samurai ends the book by demanding a kamakazi plane so he can die gloriously by sinking an enemy ship. He is unsuccessful. In the end, you sort of like and admire the guy. Very good reading if you are into the Japanese version of the Pacific War.

Education program from the 60s still lasts From the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet 28 September 1999

In 1965, with anti-Vietnam demonstrations at their worst, philosophy professor Joseph Tussman began The Experimental College Program at the University of California, Berkeley. His goal, education for the sake of the individual and of society, sounds like a dream for the jaded higher education of today. In Habits of Mind: the Experimental College Program at Berkeley, Katherine Bernhardi Trow evaluates the program and its long- term effects. While evaluation of education generally focuses narrowly on the short-sighted and fashionable, this book's great merit is its description of the long term effects. Tussman College lasted four years, from 1965-1969. Some 300 students were chosen at random to participate. Trow interviewed forty students who completed the program, and she paints a vivid picture of how they were affected, what they learned and what positive influence it had in their lives. Tussman maintained that it was the university's fundamental duty to reawaken interest and get students involved for the sake of principles which are fundamental for individuals and for society: to develop an exercise of power built on rational, democratic and constitutional principles; to increase sensitivity to humanitarian values and fundamental human problems; to cultivate and strengthen ways of life and ways of conduct which make it possible for humanity to continue a war with institutions and with a spirit of rational discussion to find solutions to problems. Democracy demands of its citizens a political interest and active participation. To do this, according to Tussman, one must educate oneself in a fashion which before the breakthrough of democracy was reserved for members of the ruling class. Students probed deeply into fundamental problems. They examined the interplay between freedom and power. They were taught to be responsible citizens in a democratic society and custodians of western civilization. The program consisted of two parts: a syllabus and a pedagogical method. The syllabus focused on big problems and cultural crisis periods in history which had driven great thinkers to tackle fundamental questions. The reading list consisted of classics, such as the Iliad and works by Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Mill, and Marx, along with more current books, such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X. These were books by authors now viewed as "dead, white males." But students remember the reading as fantastic. Pedagogically, the program diverged radically from then-prevalent teaching methods. Teachers were recruited from various areas of study. All the reading material was read by both students and teacher, regardless of which subject the teacher normally taught. Lectures were held twice a week with all the students and teachers present, and smaller seminars were held. The students wrote essays every other week, and every day they jotted down thoughts and reflections prompted by books, lectures, seminars and discussions. These notes became an intellectual autobiography. The activities reinforced each other and formed a tight intellectual tapestry which stimulated and strengthened learning and education. It was, in short, a program which moved against the stream of mass education. The program seems even more radical if one considers that it, with its high standards, was established when the general trend was toward a relaxation of the demands on students and when Berkeley, like many American universities, was in a permanent state of uproar. What were the long-term effects? In the evaluation, the dense essay- writing comes out as highly valued and as a central force in the program-- at once challenging and entertaining. Essay assignments taught the students to think more analytically and abstractly. The students' linguistic ability was radically improved, in speech and in writing and as much in style as in grammar. The intense contact with the teacher, and the criticism the teacher provided in tutorials, played a constructive and crucial role. The lack of grades was positive. Instead of focusing on grades, one concentrated on the ideas and the knowledge for itself; competitive thinking was conspicuous in its absence. The important thing was to understand what one read and to be able to apply it in other contexts than the immediate one. It was not regarded as meritorious to memorize details in order to regurgitate them later. Tussman encouraged individual thought. The environment--a separate house and small groups --contributed to the feeling of a learned society and stimulated the students. The program helped students to grow intellectually and morally. Their ability to analyze, to adapt themselves quickly to new things, new environments and new problems and to view these from different perspectives grew. They acquired a better understanding of the world around them and a better ability to interpret and understand events in it. Empathy increased and led to intellectual satisfaction and a more content life, which is reflected in the professions in which the program's former students are now active: physician, journalist, attorney, civil engineer, etc. Why did the program cease if it was so good? The answer is brief: university bureacratic staffing problems and a certain amount of lack of interest in basic education at research-oriented Berkeley made the dedicated Tussman tire. The market has become an ideology instead of a means--even, with some exceptions, in academia. Students do not study to grow as a human being, but to satisfy the market. Within the not too distant future, perhaps we will hear a university or college president who, in a travesty of Kennedy's inauguration speech, will welcome novices with the admonishment: "Ask not what the market can do for you, but what you can do for the market." Doris Lessing calls the product of this competence-fixation the well-educated barbarians; those who have gone to school for twenty years, have brilliant records, but never read a book, know no history, and care only about knowledge in their field. That group does not include the graduates of Tussman College.

An important study of the impact of an intense collegiate experience on students.

An exceptionally rich and multifaceted account of an experiment which occupies an interesting and important place in the history of American higher education.

My 18 mth old son and I fell in love with the book the moment it arrived. There is a wonderful range of stories with beautiful illustrations. This book includes every child's must-haves like - If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Goodnight Moon, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Best of all I dont have to spend over [$$$]to get each of these books.

This is a dictionary size collection of 12 picture book classics, including the good old "Goodnight Moon" first published in 1947. It is definitely a treasure worth a place in your child's library. As soon as your child graduates from board books, this is the book to give him. The royalties of this volumn goes to a noble cause; this makes the purchase so much more worthwhile.

This book is filled with many great stories. My child loves it. We have had it for a week and we read it 3 times a day. The size of the book is amazing, it is huge and the pictures are wonderful...

This is a a delightful book to read while you're pregnant. It follows Danielle Steele and six of her friends during their pregnancies -- it's like seven separate stories compiled in one book. The moms were invited by Danielle Steele (the novelist) to participate in a prenatal exercise class -- the moms include Averil (a young, wildish New Yorker married to a doctor), Mary (owner of a skin care salon), Katherine (a bubbly, active, happy psychologist) Susan (a lawyer), Jan (a TV newswoman) and Diana (a practical mom married to an opthamologist). Some are first time moms; some are not. Some work outside the home; some do not. Some are nervous ninnies; others are not. Some had morning sickness and excessive weight gain and other problems; others breezed through the nine months. Each of the twenty-nine chapters in the book covers one aspect of pregnancy or childbearing (finding out, amniocentisis, sex, going home, postpartum depression, etc.) and has entries from each of the seven women about their experiences with respect to that topic. Reading this book is like talking with seven of your friends about their experiences during all aspects of pregnancy. It's not a scary book -- some of the women drank, smoked, didn't follow the prescribed prenatal diet regime -- and all of the babies turned out just fine, the moms were happy, and every single one of the seven was reassuring about how you WILL lose the baby weight (it seemed to come off a little too easily for some of the women). The best part -- the eight pages of pictures of the moms, their babies & their husbands.

This is a wonderful book for the first time mother. I found that I was referring to this book every time something new happend in my own pregnacy. It is a comfort as well as a joy to read. Its also great because there are things in this book that all your friends who have had babies fail to tell you. Its not the "pregnacy is scary" book. I really enjoyed the different writing styles as this is window into the life style of different womens pregnacy as well as creative ways to handle the stress of pregnacy.

This is a terrific book! The stories of these 7 women having their many babies gives the reader an idea of some of the different possibilities for pregnancies and how each birth is different - as well as that each baby is unique.
Great for every woman who is pregnant to show how there is a wide range of how it all can happen. I really enjoyed the writing style and all the stories. really worth reading