Product Description

Learn a language from the comfort of your own home

Product Description

We have all grown increasingly aware of the potential -- and documented -- dangers of the chemical toxins that surround us. The New Age Herbalist is a compendium of healthy alternatives, an indispensable guide for contemporary natural living. Created by a team of experts, it offers:

A full-color illustrated glossary of more than 200 herbs, describing their properties, active ingredients, and traditional uses around the world
A guide to using herbs for scent, for decoration, and even as chemical-free housekeeping aids
Tips on using herbs for skin care and beauty, by making natural shampoos, lotions, soaps, and cosmetics
A review of culinary herbs, with some unusual recipes that use familiar herbs in delightful new ways
An examination of the growing science of herbal healing, discussing herbal remedies -- including stress relievers -- and the scientific research that validates them
A complete herb gardening plan, with advice on choosing symbiotic herbs, designing and scheduling plantings, and preserving the harvest by freezing and drying

Fascinating, authoritative, packed with information presented in a stunning visual style, The New Age Herbalist will be the home herb user's bible for years to come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

So many pictures!
Not only is this book full of information, the color pictures help you identify your herbs and plants when in doubt. There are sections for medicinal uses, and also other uses such all natural cleaning recipes, and which homemade natural herbal shampoo is best for which hair type. I am definitely hanging onto this book!!

The only thing that is misleading about the book is that it says "new age" on the cover of it. It has nothing about the magickal properties of herbs or anything like that. Perhaps they should have phrased it "new era" or something.

Excellent Reference for Herbs and Their Uses
What I really like about this book, The New Age Herbalist, is the wonderful lay-out of photos it includes regarding plants. Many books that I have seen reference finding and using herbs, but include very few pictures. In The New Age Herbalist, every chapter has a two page, large picture with lots of plants shown, at times, seeds and powders as well as the plants are shown and in color. With each herb listed in the book there is a little illustration as well so you can get an idea of what the plant looks like from those too.

This is a wonderful herb book packed with herb uses and information that is easily read and understood.

Chapter One - Understanding Herbs
Two - Using Herbs
Three - Herbs for Natural Living
Four - Herbs for Nutrition and Health
Five - Herbs for Healing
Six - Herb Gardening

These are the headings under each chapter and each chapter has in inself things like: body care, herb drinks, harvesting and storage, using fragrance and dyeing with plants and many other sub topics.

This book is almost 300 pages and the book is a very large paperback so it's easy to read the print and find things you are looking for. It's laid out very well and is wonderfully informative. I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in starting an herb garden or in learning about herbs and their uses. It's Spring so it's the perfect time to start learning.

Review of the New Age Herbalist
This is a great book for the novice as well as those that have walked this path for years.
The photography, drawings and paintings are excellent and are good guides for identification.

I bought this book several years ago and it got ruined in a "flood."Since I had now had a book with many pages stuck together, I had to get a new copy.

The only thing that bothers me is the ad here on Amazon.The book lists Richard Mabey as consultant Editor but does not list anyone else, such as was listed in the ad.

None the less the book is a must for the Herbalist and Naturalist.

Herbalist How to ues Herbs for Healing
This is a great book it shows and tells you all you would want to know and more.

Great information and good layout
I have found this book to be very useful and well designed. The glossary of herbs is detailed and informative, combining age-old wisdom and newer, medical information. Each herb is also included on a photo page and referenced from the glossary, so you can see what the herb you are studying looks like in real life. The sections on home use, health and body care were interesting and had recipes for a variety of uses. I would have liked a few more pet care recipes, but overall, I'm very happy with this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Focuses on the American economy and the billions of data points that define it.Discusses economic forces at work.Reveals that the American Growth Machine continues to deliver what we want and many of suggested remedies to problems that don't exist will leave us worse off.Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Valuable reference source for economic statistics
I am a researcher of productivity find many of the charts and graphs useful, particularly the historical cost of goods in hours worked.Also there are over 40 pages of references on various types of economic data.

Unfortunately the authors' defense of declining real wages has not withstood the test of time.Nor has their defense of service jobs.Our manufacturing base had been destroyed through globalization and our natural resources depleted, which was ignored in this book.

we are better off than we think
There are two main problems I see with "Myths of Rich and Poor: Why We're Better Off Than We Think", and I might as well get those out of the way, so that my review ends on a high note. First, the book was published in 1999, and written most likely a year or so earlier. Although it covers the 1973-1997 years, it is possible that the data it uses is biased in reflection of the then splendor of the dotcom economy. How many of the conclusions reached stand up to scrutiny today 10 years later? I do not know. Second, the authors appear to have set out to prove a point, and they looked only at the data that support that point: that the USA is not doing as bad as others tell us it is. This approach raises questions about the analytical balance and usefulness of the results.

Nonetheless, based on the data available at the time it was written, this book is incredibly good! In two broad sections of approximately the same length, it addresses two myths: (a) the myth that incomes and the standard of living of Americans are falling, and (b) the myth that Americans are losing their jobs, left and right. The authors devote five chapters to "dismantling" the first myth, and four chapters to quelling the second myth. Given the state of employment today, it is not so clear if the book has succeeded in the second instance. It is very clear that it make a very good case.

For this reviewer the first myth was put to sleep beautifully, and a number of tables and figures throughout the book present a high mountain of evidence.Take a few examples. It is true that average hourly wages in the USA have fallen between 1973 and 1997. This reflects structural changes in the economy that have allowed low skilled migrant workers to do hourly wage jobs, and skilled workers to get salaries and other forms of compensation. In the end, per capita income and total compensation have risen even as wages have fallen.

On the other hand, not only is the hourly wage a mismeasure of worker income, income itself is a poor proxy for wealth. The wealth of Americans has "skyrocketed" in almost all categories. For example, in 1970 the median size of a house was less than 1450 sq. ft., and had no central heating or air-conditioning. By 1995, the median size of a house had climbed to 1950 sq. ft, and a typical house comes equipped with central heating and air-conditioning, dishwasher, two or more bathrooms, private garage, just to mention a few standard features. In addition, the cars Americans drive, and the highways they drive on, are all modern and inexpensive by historical standards. "Even the poor are better off" today than they were in 1970: more cars, PCs, TVs, and so on - see Table 1.2, p. 15. Compared to the past, products and services Americans consume now are new and improved. These new and improved products and services require fewer minutes to produce than before. In 1970, you needed 56 minutes of work to buy a half-gallon of milk; by the 1990s, you needed no more than 9 minutes for the same quantity of milk. Amazing statistics!

Because of these improvements, leisure has increased. Thework week has shortened from 61 hours in 1870 to only 34.4 in 1996.Although incomes are still unequally distributed, with the highest 5th getting nearly 50% and the lowest 5th receiving less than 4%, social mobility is still alive and well, especially through education - see Figure 4.3, p. 75. This mobility includes women and racial minorities. Hence, lifetime earning is rising especially for those who take time to educate themselves, work, save, form a family, relocate to where opportunities are, retrain, stick out the hard times, and become tech-literate. Again, incomes are unequal, but the stuff people buy are so cheap that both high and low income households can afford them. This means inequality need not be inequity. Besides, America is still number one in the world in terms of per capita income and standard of living.

Clearly, exploding the myth about jobs was not that straightforward. Nevertheless, even here the authors of this book show that while employment in older industries, like railroads, has gone down, new industries, like software engineering, have created more jobs than the older industries lost. Besides, the new jobs pay more. The problems critics see are structural, brought about by technological changes. Change is never pleasant. Writing to President Andrew Jackson in 1829, Governor of New York Martin Van Buren complained that the railroad was threatening the canal system as a means of transportation. The letter concluded that "The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed" (Figure 6.2, p. 134). Maximum speed then was only 15mph - change can hurt.

The book stresses that jobs are being lost, but there is no alarm. One way we know that is because "Americans now eat more meals than ever at restaurants" (p.139), long considered a luxury for the rich.Jobs in goods-producing sectors are declining; in service-producing sectors, they are increasing. All this is happening because of unprecedented economic growth, which allows innovations to spread faster and faster. Air travel spread slower than the microwave, microwave slower than the TV, TV slower than the PC, and the PC slower than the Internet. The American economy is driven by innovations. Concludes the book, "our economic system works, and it works well" (p. 194).

In terms of jobs, the U.S. economy is a different economy from what it was during the dotcom years. It would be interesting to see what a new look at the data will show. Even so, this book is a very good account. Recommended.

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

Does government spending end poverty?
Some of the reviewers of Myths point out that the authors do not account for the role of government welfare programs in reducing poverty. Actually poverty in the U.S. declined steadily during the past century UNTIL Johnson's "war on poverty" started. Poverty for the elderly has declined somewhat since then at least partly due to social security (at what cost?) and poverty for those under 18 has increased.

Between 1965 and 1994 poverty programs cost taxpayers $5.4 trillion. It has been calculated that with $5.4 trillion you could purchase every U.S. factory, all manufacturing equipment, and every office building. With what's left over, one could buy every airline, trucking company and our commercial maritime fleet. If you're still in the shopping mood, you could also buy every television, radio and power company, plus every retail and wholesale store in the entire nation.

And the welfare bill has now risen past 7.9 trillion. One might question the cost of welfare programs versus the benefits.

attacks the myths
We all hear about how the Japanese make better cars, we cannot compete in the steel industry, Indian engineers work for less, our graduate schools are filled with Asians, etc. People use these as evidence that the U.S. is no longer competitive and that we are losing our position as the most powerful economic leader in the world. This is pure nonsense.

The two authors go through a detailed explanation of why the U.S. is better off now than it ever has been. Some of the critics of this book say that we are doing so well now because of government programs. Well how do these people explain the success of the U.S. before FDR and Johnson. The Great Depression is also proof that the government shouldn't meddle with a capitalist society.

This book should be read by anyone who hears the media's and polticians'spin on the welfare of the U.S. The U.S. is still the most powerful economic giant in the world and the facts are there to back it up. Some people can spin some stats to show that we are not doing as well as we think, but it is just spin and I truly believe that these people just want the U.S. to be less powerful because they dislike the success of our country.

this book holds up over time
Michael Cox, of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and Richard Alm, a journalist by way of the university of Kansas, wrote this book five years ago prior to the 2000 presidential election.It addressed the same issues that we're dealing with today in 2004: how well off is the electorate and thedefinition of "real income"; the issues of downsizing or job exportation, an offshoot of the economic condition called creative destruction; the trade deficit as a sign of national economic strength or weakness; and how income mobility between the earning quintiles is alive and well in America i.e those who start poor don't remain poor, they can move up quickly.In fact, no one "oppresses them", the caveat of Marxist class warfare ideology. Isn't it amazing that students are still being taught the efficacy of Marxism in our universities by professors who act as hand-maidens for the Denmocratic Party (which has fallen off the proverbial cliff to the Left)?

You might suppose that the leaders of the Democratic Party, the one's who talk about the "two America's" and the wealth division that separates them might avail themselves of the realities extant in the country today, but no, they'll probably go down to defeat by a far larger margin than the current polling indicates due to their hard headed need to fight yesterdays wars.In fact, the workers of the world never did unite so the political Left has had to export a whole new working class of illegal immigrants to serve their mythology and win elections.Keeping that in mind, this book addresses the continuing progress of these very immigrants.

For starters (in 1997) the richest 1% of earners earned 17% of the income, but paid 35% of the taxes. Today they pay closer to 40%.By contrast, the bottom 50% of earners earned 14% of the income, but paid only 4% of the income taxes.To flesh this out, the top 25% of wage earners paid 82% of income taxes while earning far less of a percentage of the income.You'll also learn here that the percentage of Americans owning any household appliance you can name has increased markedly in the past 30 years. That passage of time has also yielded an additional benefit by requiring fewer hours of labor with regard to providing sufficient income for those purchases.

The book shows how America, with its rule of law protecting personal property rights, is the most successful economy in world history (and it's pulling away from the rest.)It highlights how we're immeasurabley better off than our forefathers - for easy reference, see Julian Simon and Stephen Moore's book "It's getting better all the time: 100 trends over the last 100 years."There you can see that longevity increases yearly which is a a pretty good ongoing indicator of the direction of our quality of life.

When Virginia Postrel of Reason magazine says that "no honest debate can ignore this book", she hits the nail on the head because the neo-communist left-wing in America doesn't want an honest debate.While facts don't win arguments a democracy via a constitutional republic, as imperfect as it is, is still the best political system available on the planet.Read "Myth's of the Rich and Poor" to find out why.

This is a terrific book for getting your head on straight when it comes to the realities by which all of us live.Buy a copy for your children and discuss it with them; they won't learn about it in school. ... Read more

Product Description
A new classic biography of England’s most vilifiedking, from model of nobility to murderer and monster. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

too clever by half; read with utmost caution
After reading Hick's effort at a biography about Anne Neville I thought perhaps this "leading" scholar of the period would be on firmer ground with Richard, for whom there is no lack of material. Indeed.
However, by p.77 I could take no more; Hicks was caught manipulating a minor detail into a portrayal of Richard as a foolhardy, relentless opportunist whose greed made him the dupe of one Sir James Harrington, whose implied claims to Hornby Castle was legally specious and typical of Richard's political ineptitude, as if this Harrington was some unknown quantity to him, to his family!

Had Hicks really read the biography of Richard by Prof. Charles Ross (whom he alleges to admire) he would certainly have come across this family in Ross's far more honest assessment of the facts: Harrington was the same family that stood by Richard's father, the Duke of York, especially Sir Thomas (the father of Sir James) who fought and died alongside York at Wakefield (Dec.1460).

If there is nothing else that can be said about Richard I think it is he was loyal to the memory of his father and extended this loyalty to any of his father's adherents or heirs: those bonds were all he would have of this father whose head would be piked on Micklegate Bar in York when Richard was only eight.

If Hicks is willing to play stupid games like this, just to make Richard look uniquely and mindlessly grapsing then for me Hicks lost all credibility and I proceeded to read every statement with not just caution but outright suspicion.

One of the most annoying segments was concerning the "star witness," Dominic Mancini (p.125-136). To even suggest Mancini was in any way objective and just happened to be wandering around London in 1483, who just happened to know the Archbishop of Vienne (Angelo Cato, physician to the French king, Louis XI) strained my patience. Why any author hoping to establish Mancini as their "proof" that More and the Tudors had it right would not think to fully first establish Mancini's presumed credentials can only be doing so to plump up a very dangerous weakness in his "history."

For example, who sent Mancini to London? Why early in 1483, who paid his living expenses, why did he leave just as suddenly and just as things were getting interesting, ie. a most unexpected coronation, in early July? When did he write any part of this history? What language was it written in? were there installment reports sent back to Cato while he was abroad? was he an agent of the French king's physician? was he there to report on the rumors of Edward IV's decline? Was he there to simply connect with other agents in the city, as a routine procedure? was he ever sent by Cato to any other country, as an ambassador, an agent, to check on any other king and their circle? If not, why not? When and where did he meet Cato? Why the English court?

Since Hicks wasn't about to even allow he possibility that Mancini had been sent with an agenda I will provide it, thanks to the scepticism Hick's sloppy manner engenders - as far as I can ascertain from other author's references to Mancini he was probably sent by Cato as a agent, (and who knows how many others!) and specifically to report on the situation there. It was Cato's good fortune that his man was there at the time Edward IV died from his well known excesses. Mancini was recalled by Cato, with the coronation of Richard, at a most curious time: Why recall him then? Did he fear for Mancini's life? Was it now unsafe for Mancini, especially if he was consorting with Argentine, and how many others was Argentine in league with? when did Argentine leave London? Was the only mission for Mancini extended by his French "patron" - Cato - when his liege realized things had gone awary, as far as what would have been more beneficial to the French, that of a child king? Was Mancini only recalled once Cato quite suddenly realised what he was dealing with? Not the 12 year old stripling Edward V in the hands of his dozy, scholarly uncle Rivers; but instead, the most inopportune reality of Richard duke of Gloucester, now king, someone Cato et al knew to be openly hostile to them since the Treaty of Picquigny (1475) which Richard refused to sign much less attend it's signing.

If Mancini showed up with any biases against Richard it was not Tudor or Lancastrian related, it was simple French mistrust and possibly even loathing for Richard, who most assuredly wanted that 1475 invasion to be another Agincourt!

Mancini no doubt sent updates back to Cato, who once he recalled Mancini, then wanted a formal document drawn up to have on hand for future use if needed (for defamation, as a no doubt doctored tract would be). How much Mancini knew of these machinations I can't tell, he may simply have been aware of Cato's larger plans for his update reports only after he was recalled and then "made to" write them down as a history.

So, read Hicks if you have nothing else to do, but read with a pen nearby, you will have to do alot of cross referencing to even hope to establish what is reliable versus what is Hick's tiresome malice concerning his subject.

An historical essay
The back cover calls this book a "biography" of Richard III. That, it should be emphasised, it is not. Many important events in the life of Richard III are only mentioned in passing. Readers who want to know whether Richard really ordered the murder of his nephews will have to look elsewhere, too. In fact, the author clearly assumes that the reader has already read a biography of this king, and is familiar with the facts.

The book really is an assesment of Richard III as a politician: His career, the methods by which he climbed to power, and his downfall. The author makes an effort to situate Richard III in the the context of his own time, but at the same time very much portrays him as a politician who used techniques that are familiar to today's spin doctors.

As such, this is a fine book, and well worth reading, even if the authors is at times guilty of too much repetition. It is an highly interesting assesment. All the same, the readers gets the annoying feeling that it is not an objective assesment; this clearly is the case for the prosecution. Where the author attempts to present also a case for the defense, he automatically falls back into prosecutorial mode. Hence the fifth star remains out of reach. ... Read more

Product Description

Heart disease is the number one killer of men in America - but the solution may be more complex than simply cutting out saturated fat and salt. There is an increasing body of scientific research supporting the link between physical and spiritual health.

Dr. Ed Young, best-selling author and pastor of one of the largest churches in America, is convinced of this link between our physical and spiritual health.In this workbook the authors demonstrate the direct correlation of the physical heart to the spiritual heart. This workbook offers men the tools they need to make realistic changes toward becoming the men they really want to be.

Men will appreciate this workbook because it encourages them to:

• Be motivated to become better stewards of their physical bodies.
• Be motivated to discover the weak areas of their spiritual center, the heart, and do what they can to strengthen it.
• Understand and internalize the important relationship between a strong physical heart and a strong spiritual heart.

Product Description
Based on an extensive worldwide study, this book reveals what gets boys excited about learning

Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys challenges the widely-held cultural impression that boys are stubbornly resistant to schooling while providing concrete examples of pedagogy and instructional style that have been proven effective in a variety of school settings. This book offers more than 100 detailed examples of lessons that succeed with male students, grouped thematically. Such themes include: Gaming, Motor Activities, Open Inquiry, Competition, Interactive Technology, and Performance/Role Play. Woven throughout the book is moving testimony from boys that both validates the success of the lessons and adds a human dimension to their impact.

• The author's presents more than 100+ specific activities for all content areas that have proven successful with male students
• Draws on an in-depth, worldwide study to reveal what lessons and strategies most engage boys in the classroom
• Has been described as the missing link that our schools need for the better education of boys

Customer Reviews (3)

Lots of applications
I work for a large industrial company as a business analyst but have moonlighted for the last 10 years as a math tutor for junior and senior high school students. While I don't stand in front of a class 6 periods a day, the principles of effective teaching and many of the specific techniques described in this book will be helpful to me. One-on-one tutoring can include game playing, creating (virtual) products, open inquiry, even competition. I can see how "best lesson" methods from other academic areas can be applied to math but also like the book's index of examples by subject.

My primary appreciation for the book is its promotion of teaching in the classroom in a manner similar to how learning occurs in the business world. From my work experience, new products get developed, hard problems get solved through a parallel combination of 3-dimensional relationships, creativity, multi-modal modeling, and collaboration as described in the Reichert, Hawley book. Full-time teachers who pick up a few new lesson plan ideas from this book can, hopefully, give their students skills to continue learning after the last school bell rings.

reaching boys teaching boys


As someone who has worked both as a teacher and, presently, as a counselor, I greatly appreciate the way that this book illustrates the possibilities for teacher/student relationships.The stories from the students' perspective help to refresh and reinvigorate even a seasoned educator.I find
this book an important read to inspire new teachers as well as encourage even "old salts" that what we originally hoped to do ...is possible.

Concrete, episodic, firsthand accounts of what really works!
The book can serve as a step-by-step guide for connecting with boys in the classroom.It was very helpful to me to hear from not just teachers who claimed that something worked but from the boys themselves.Testimonials cut across cultures to give multiple perspectives and strategies that help teachers, and adults in general to better relate to boys of all ages.Great to read a chapter at a time, set it down for a week and pick up where you left off. ... Read more

Product Description
The most authoritative contemporary textbook on the core components of the rapidly developing medical disclipline known as Musculoskeletal Medicine - the "Bible" for clinicians, both medical practitioners and therapists, who wish to advance their knowledge of the evaluation and non-surgical management of back pain and a range of painful disorders of the locomotive system. This multi-author text with contributions from international experts is an authoritative account of the basis of Musculoskeletal Medicine in contemporary medical society and provides the reader with advanced knowledge of the conceptual basis, diagnostic challenge, and pragmatic management of dysfunctions of the neuromusculoskeletal system. This multi-author text with contributions from international experts is an authoritative account of the basis of Musculoskeletal Medicine in contemporary medical society and provides the reader with advanced knowledge of the conceptual basis, diagnostic challenge, and pragmatic management of dysfunctions of the neuromusculoskeletal system. Musculoskeletal Medicine is now recognised as a distinct branch of medicine, incorporating the sub-specialty of manual medicine, orthopaedic medicine, and the neuromusculoskeletal component of osteopathic medicine. The co-editors have been active in promoting the discipline worldwide. The textbook has been eagerly awaited, not least by those doctors and therapists who wish to expand and improve their skill base, or to further their careers and academic accomplishments, to the benefit of the patient. ... Read more

Product Description

Perspectives on World Politics has been essential reading for students of international relations since the 1980s. This new edition fully updates this key text for the twenty-first century.

Focusing on the main competing analytical perspectives, the first and second editions established an authoritative sense of the conceptual tools used to study world politics, as well as reflecting on the major debates and responses to changes in the world arena.

This third edition builds on the success of its predecessors by presenting a fresh set of readings within this framework:

• power and security
• interdependence and globalization
• dominance and resistance.

It also includes a much-expanded fourth section, ‘World Politics in Perspective’, which reflects the methodological and normative debates that have developed since publication of the previous edition.

This is an essential text for all students and scholars of politics and international relations.

Product Description
The Tiger is one of the world's most iconic animals, yet it stands on the brink of tragedy. Poaching and habitat loss have so reduced tiger numbers that extinction in the wild is now a real possibility. Only in a few protected areas are they secure; one such place is Pench National Park in central India, where for the past three years a TV film crew have followed the lives of a remarkable tigress and her four cubs. This book provides a unique insight into their lives through diary extracts by cameraman Michael W. Richards. A series of twelve feature spreads by tiger expert Hashim Tyabji looks at the broader picture, at subjects such as tiger ecology and conservation, the impact of poaching and at what the future may hold for the world's increasingly beleaguered wild tigers.Published in association with the BBC, this book is illustrated by superb photography drawn from "Tiger - Spy in the Jungle", a television programme made for the BBC by John Downer Productions and anticipated for transmission in spring 2008. The story of the Pench tigers offers hope that, with adequate protection, the Tiger can continue to prowl the forests of Asia in safety. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London, New York, Hodder and StoughtonPublication date: 1917Subjects: Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
An important goal in every first-grade classroom is to get children reading--but how? This book examines current research on first-grade literacy instruction, and shows how it translates into what good teachers really do in the classroom. The authors, premier early literacy scholars and educators, describe several studies of effective beginning reading instruction conducted across the country. They then take readers directly into the classrooms of five highly successful teachers, exploring the reading, writing, and classroom management techniques these practitioners use to boost student engagement and achievement. The book provides readers with a vivid picture of the complexities of successful teaching. In particular, it demonstrates ways that teachers can blend elements of both holistic and skills approaches to provide rich and enjoyable learning environments for young readers.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

What?
It is interesting that Allington would refer to lessons from exemplary first-grade classrooms.I heard him speak and the man said "9 out of 10 first grade teachers are useless."This man was so offensive and disrespectful. It is apparent that his work comes from a place of deep bitterness, not a real desire to help teachers, help students.He is more concerned with being heard as to his own bitter opinions.I do not suggest any educator read his work.Surely there are many superior educators that have published and deserve your time...NOT Allington.Try Keene, Miller, Harvey, Daniels,....anyone but this man.

Just what I wanted.
This book was sent just the way it was said to be.The shipping was a bit slow, but it did make it by the final day that was alotted. ... Read more

Product Description
From the author of Crazy English and The Miracle of Language, a fiendishly engrossing, thoroughly addictive volume of anecdotes, curiosities, and quizzes testing your knowledge of books from Genesis to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fun Little Book!
I've had a lot of fun with this book, testing my own knowledge of literary trivia and using it on friends in my book discussion group. Appealing format, informative and entertaining. This would be a great gift for any bibliophile.

Where Milton, Melville, Mencken Merge
Entertainingly organized by topic, and with question lists, "Literary Trivia" is truly fun and games for book lovers.

This stuff is trivia, but Michael Gilleland and Richard Lederer deal only with the big authors. They do not ask you any inane questions about authors who no one has ever read. That would be taking trivia a step farther than what is useful. Anyone with a decent reading list will know many of the questions, and the authors present them in such a way that it also turns out to be fun learning.

What will you learn? Delightfully, nothing of consequence. Each chapter begins with a pithy discussion of what little quiz or game is to follow.

For example: in a chapter about how books end, Gilleland and Lederer tells us about the origin of "cock and bull stories". Then, they list 15 quotes to match with 15 books, and then 15 authors to match accordingly. They also generously supply the answers.

You'll ponder pen names, significant numbers, the Bible in the news (impressive overall subsection on this influential book), and, of course, a fair dose of Shakespeare trivia.

Every chapter is succinct. Get stuck or bored with one? Move onward.

This is more than bathroom bookshelf fodder, but a couch and cola book. Teachers can use this to excite students about books. Any coffeeshop owner ought to grab a few copies as well.

By the way, yes: Milton, Melville and Mencken are in here.

Do I recommend "Literary Trivia: Fun and Games for Book Lovers" by Michael Gilleland and Richard Lederer? Wholeheartedly.

Anthony Trendl
http://anthonytrendl.blogspot.com

Can trivia really be worthy of 5 stars?
The answer is yes-if you're an English teacher who is always looking forways to get kids engaged with research methods in the library. This book isfilled with challenges that set students in motion in the library. The restof the non-high school world of readers should find this book a pleasantdiversion and a more stimulating breakfast companion than the dailycrossword. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

James Bond
I have every Bond book ever written from day one and I enjoy them all. You can't go wrong with ANY James Bond book.exciting and so worth buying.

GARDNERs Pay Off
John Gardner's screenplay approach to writing novels pays off. This is his first novel based on the screenplay of a Bond film and he seems to have found his niche even though some of these events are a retelling from Ian Fleming's novel "Live and Let Die" with the same character being mangled again! However, this novel is based on Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson's story for Timothy Dalton's James Bond in LICENCE TO KILL. It remarkably makes for an interesting read from an otherwise unsatisfactory film adding detail to scenes and venturing inside the head of the main character exploring his feelings and motivations. For John Gardner this is pretty inspiring stuff. ... Read more