Nonfiction Books

This meditation touches every area, when you are done you will notice that your vibrations and your energy have completely shifted. I have worked with most of Doreen's meditation CDs and love them all but this one is very special because I noticed an immediate effect after the first time I did it. I tend to absorb vibes and energies from other people and this meditation helped me release them all. I highly recommend it even if all you want is relax and let go of stress and tension and you might get a pleasant surprise when you discover some unexpected benefits from this meditation.

I am very pleased with the meditation technique that she uses, its part therapist and part spiritual teacher. She gives the listener gentle and thorough ways to make significant life changes. I found it very helpful indeed.

The meditations work wonderfully.

The visualizations are powerful.

Couldn't recommend it more!

Doreen Virtue's new audio meditation cd "Angel Therapy Meditations" is a GREAT meditation cd. I highly reccommend it to anybody that has a strong connection or wants to have a stronger connection with their guardian angels and the Archangels. In this meditation cd, Doreen guides you gently in releasing any stress, worries, and tension to the angels. Then you work with the loving archangels such as Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Uriel, Archangel Ariel, Archangel Raguel, and Archangel Raziel. In this meditation, you work with the angels in getting clarity of your life's purpose, increasing confidence, releasing fears, and healing any problem that needs healing. You work closely with Archangel Michael in cutting cords to fear, and worry. Doreen also provides some powerful affirmations such as "It is safe for me to receive" and "It is safe for me to love and be loved." It is a beauitful cd. After you listen to it, you will feel good and uplifted. Hope you give this meditation cd a chance.
Angel Blessings!

Specific, reproducible worksheets for teaching writing according to 6 + 1 traits; rubrics are enormously successful for the teacher and the student--both learn

What I love about the 6 Traits is the accessibility across the grade levels. My initial experiences with 6 Traits was in the elementary school and I currently teach 8th grade. I have not found this resource to be helpful with older writers as most of the language is for young writers. With some of my students writing at the high school, even college level, it seems inappropriate. I use picture books for inspiration, but the checklists are too young. I will continue to collect 6 Traits materials as I found it is the best way to teach writing effectively.

It really does take out all of the grunt work out of teaching the 6 traits. All you have to copy and teach. It's that simple.

Exactly what I was looking for as a 4th grade teacher using 6 Trait writing in my classroom. The rubrics are easy to use and modify. The "forms" inside make understanding 6 Traits for young writers easier.

My son needed this book for school and we received in time for school. Great service!

great service....although the school changed books on us as the last moment, i was able to return this and had my account credited timely..

This book arrived in excellent condition and within about a week and a half of ordering it.

Very satisfied

My son's entire class has been unable to get the CD to run. All the kids have Vista. Has anyone been able to get it to run on Vista?

It was not what I expected. I had put in the ISBN# and I thought everthing on the page was the correct ISBN#. It just said Learning
log.It did not say learning log for on line activities. I felt cheated and disappointed, because it was not what we needed at all. I fell like it was a waste. I bought two, one for my son and one for his friend. Luckly, the teacher has been understanding and given us the pages he needs. Thank you. Brenda

My son needed this book for school and we received in time for school. Great service!

This book arrived within 3 days of purchase and the condition of the book was just as the seller described it to be. I would recommend this seller to anyone.

Book was new, as promised, at a reasonable price, and arrived in excellent time. Very pleased.

I think this is probably a good book for anyone looking for a vicarious Parisian dining experience. There are some very interesting commentaries about the kinds of eats and eating establishments that exist in Paris (and elsewhere in France). Someone not familiar with Paris and not headed there anytime soon can nevertheless enjoy the descriptions of food and environment that author Lobrano provides in his chatty book.

There is, in my opinion at least, a really insightful chapter on dining alone in Europe that goes beyond the vicarious and hits the bulls eye on the practical side of travel.

Author Lobrano, clearly a Paris insider, also has a lot to offer the actual visitor to that city with lists of some great sounding restaurants and menus that seem much less covered by other food guides. He ventures, for example, into the far corners of several districts of the city that are seldom frequented by visitors, but deserve exploring just for the food to be had there.

The book will be less interesting to someone knowledgeable about food and Paris. There is a lot of space given to comments on "French cooking 101" that aren't going to appeal to someone already in the know about the scene. Also mildly irritating is the author's inclusion of extensive details about his dining partners, the dispositions of the waiters/hosts/chefs at the restaurants visited and other superfluous chit-chat about mood, environment, etc.

When all is said and done, opinions about food and restaurants are entirely subjective. At his best, Lobrano is a well-informed expat in Paris who supplies the reader with some interesting dining possibilities. Some wading through verbose commentary is needed to get to the good stuff. It may be worth your time if you are not as familiar or comfortable with the city as Lobrano is. On other hand, there are other sources of dining advice, as at least one other reviewer has suggested--notably the Pudlow guide which is frequently updated and speaks to a local audience.

Will be sampling a few of Lobrano's suggestions in the next few weeks. Delightful reading. Spot on reviews. All too often the tourist gets "ripped off" in going to supposedly great local restaurants, which have long since lost their shine. I can't attest to the authenticity yet - but just the reading has me salivating. Indeed, as one reviewer noted, if nothing else, as one who will be eating solo during this particular trip, the book makes you wish you could find such a great eating companion. I just know I wont be disappointed.

Having just returned from Paris, I highly recommend HUNGRY FOR PARIS as a superb source of restaurant information and an absolutely wonderful read. What I especially loved about this book is that it offers a brilliantly chosen selection of restaurants for every possible occasion and pocketbook; guidebooks that offer 500 or 1000 restaurants are of no use to me--how do I know which ones are really good? Lobrano's sensible selection solves this problem, and even better, his writing is sublime. With great originality, he's created a hybrid book that's a mixture of a guidebook, a memoir and a delightful portrait of Paris. I loved this book!

Being American in Paris does not qualify one to write an authoritative book on Paris restaurants -- in a very real way, expat writers like Lobrano (and Patricia Wells, for that matter) condescend to the local culture and visiting tourists too. After all, would any American think to buy a book that purports to be the authority on American restaurants -- which across the board are now better than French ones anyway -- written by a Frenchman? Of course not. I would argue that Lobrano is as qualified to recommend Paris restaurants as George Bush is to draft a coherent strategy for lasting peace in Iraq. Consumers would be better off buying the book Parisians actually read, the Pudlow Paris guide, written by a Parisian and now in English, too. Jer

Having been to Paris recently, I was curious to see how the author would treat certain of the restaurants I had visited. However, the reading became much more than that as I took great pleasure in reading about many restuarants that I had heard of but did not actually have time to visit.
The author has some clear preferences which become clearer the further one goes into the book. I found that I agreed with most of them from the standpoint of food choices and quality, service and overall ambience.
The coverage of restaurants is very good although some of the neighborhoods are probably too far out of the way for many visitors.

My biggest regret was that the book ended.
I really didn't want to put it down.

I have been teaching foreign languages for 33 years and this is the dictionary I always ask my students to buy. My students must agree with my high opinion of the dictionary as my was stolen off my desk! I looked at other dictionaries before replacing mine but my choice was pretty clear from the start. Any dictionary that a student will take, must be one heck of a dictionary. I like the multiple choices for each word and how they give them in context. Do your Spanish teacher a favor, buy yourself this dictionary and leave hers on the desk.

I borrowed this dictionary from the local library to help me with my ESOL class (I have mostly Spanish-speakers). True, it doesn't have all the words I need but I really love it: it has so much! I also have decided to buy one for my daughter who's taking Spanish in college because she can't lug her BIG dictionary around with her and because she's not always doing her assignments in her bedroom (hence she's not using a dictionary at all if not in the room). When I majored in French 25 years ago, the dictionary with which I became VERY intimate was about the size of the U. of Chicago Dict., 5th Edition, and I was a wiz at finding what I needed, i.e., the bulk of what I needed was in something this size, and SIZE IS THE POINT here. When we need more words and nuances, use the bigger dictionary with MORE WORDS in it, the one we usually leave at home. But for flexibility AND ACTUAL "USEABILITY", use THIS ONE! As it is right now, Daughter keeps calling home and saying, "How do you say ...?"

the University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary is the very best Spanish-English dictionary available. It includes cultural notes and one can always find the needed word.

The Chicago dictionary and I have been together ever since its third edition, which was the best of its day. The fourth edition set a standard that I have not seen equalled. The fifth edition is a great disappointment, a wastrel son that has squandered the intellectual capital bequeathed him by his forebears.

Gone are all the fine distinctions that make a language not simply intelligible but meaningful. Gone are the phonology and history of the language that gave structure to our understanding. Gone are the regional precisions that, in this day of continent-wide cable TV emanating from Buenos Aires, Caracas, Mexico City, Miami, and Los Angeles, become ever more important.

On the bright side, the fifth edition's typography, while cramped, is easier to read.

But I can recommend the Chicago no longer. The fifth is decidedly for the short-attention-span crowd. If you don't want a dictionary written for elementary students, either get the fourth edition or look to a different publisher.

Remember the rubbish kids used in high school Spanish, taking their "Spanish" from the lady from Yourtown USA, who had never spoken Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country, or even spoken Spanish with a native speaker of Spanish? Remember the jocks taking "Spanish" in college for the distribution requirement, with the vacant looks on their faces, who got passed for football, or because their parents were alumni? Remember the textbook style stuff these people used (meaning bought and never cracked)? If you're nostalgic for that era, here's your "Spanish Dictionary". The U of Chi Spanish dictionary was always a bit brief, and the present crew seems to have thought that it should be even briefer, so here you have a "Brief Spanish Dictionary". It used to identify a lot of regional usages, in fact that was a selling point. Well, people complain about how much regional variation there is in Spanish, how slangy it is. Even Spanish native speakers! So, let's trim it down! Leave it to the New U of Chi Spanish Dictionary to lead the crusade against local idiosyncracy! Don't let those people in Chile or wherever get away with using their own lingo. Snuff it out! Don't list it, don't bother with it. It ain't there, no problem.
If the word ain't in your "Spanish" textbook, it ain't in this "dictionary". Welcome to "Spanish 101", eternally on the 101 level. No sangria, no senyorita, nada. No seas tonto, compa. Compra otro diccionario y aprende el castellano.

i really like this book. touching stories that open your brain to different dilemmas in medical ethics, a subject i enjoy reading about. i lent it to several friends, all of whom loved the book.

I enjoyed the book. Makes you think about ethics a bit and the reality of financial constraints on the practice of medicine.

Despite the major advances in knowledge, skills, and technology in the field of medicine, this book shows that ultimately life and death fall back on the human touch. Following the workings of an Ethics Committee in a major urban hospital over several months, Belkin clearly shows that medicine continues to be as much an art as a science and in many cases there are no "right" answers, even when decisions can affect whether a patient lives or dies.
This is not a dry, mechanical review of how ethical decisions are made. Quite the opposite, the book captures your full attention from the very first page. You become fully involved in the heart-wrenching lives of actual hospital patients, as well as the no-win situations health care professionals and family members find themselves in when struggling with decisions that literally have life or death consequences.
For example, when she describes the process in which the life support devices are withdrawn from a young patient you feel you are there in the room witnessing the tragedy. Some readers might scream within their minds not to do it - perhaps there is something else can be done? Others may feel a sense of loving compassion over the ending of someone's suffering. Both types will feel incredible compassion for those who had to make the actual decision and hopefully will never have to make such a choice in their own lives.

Lisa Belkin has created an amazing book here - she definitely did her research. The book consists of a few case studies of patients who pose ethical dilemas. Belkin takes you inside meetings of the ethics committee at the hospital, she takes you to the patient's bedside to see what the patient actually wants. Some of the patients she follows are a young kid who has been hospitalized for 15 years with a terminal condition, beating all odds by staying alive that long, several premature babies, and a man who was paralyzed almost completely after getting shot in the spine. It's a great look at medical ethics - Lisa Belkin's book asks all the right questions.

The book is in a very easy-to-read format - the stories of the patients she follows are all intertwined throughout the book. For example, you'll read about Patrick for 30-or-so pages, and then she'll switch over to update you on Taylor's story. She does this because you are reading the stories in "real time" as they happened; all of this took place in a certain time span in the hospital. It's exciting and fast-paced non-fiction - I read it in two days and didn't put it down.

It will break your heart, because often the ethics committee has to bring money into the discussion, as much as they would like to treat every patient as if money was not an issue. This book is SO worth reading, for anyone who is interested in medicine and healthcare at all.

This book will keep you wanting to turn the page and make it hard to put down the book. This is a great explanation of real life situations that patients and hospitals face everyday. Some of the situations that are hard for some people to understand why hospitals are concerned with matters like money and certain treatments of patients can be explained.

I have been teaching French, Spanish and ESL for many years. I have tried every teaching tool I could find. I can honestly say, this book is the best language tool ever! My students take this book with them everywhere they go and they are the ones who started calling this their "bible."

Apr 5, 2008: Has all sorts of practical vocabulary for everyday situations: household vocabulary, garden care vocabulary, medical vocabulary and many other situations. Would be valuable to communicate with Spanish speaking employees who may have limited literacy, because it is a picture book aimed at adult immigrants. Has lots of words for tools, car repair and furniture that you don't get in high school textbooks.

I am an English as a Second Language Instructor. Every time we use the class set of Oxford Picture Dictionaries my students always want to purchase them. I get a lot of requests for these. I see the students using them all of the time. It increases their knowledge of English & their confidence. I highly recommend it for anyone learning English or Spanish!

I have found the Oxford Picture Dictionary to be a great help for teaching vocabulary words in my ESL classroom. The illustrations are very good and easy to understand. I would recommend it highly.

my daughter is learning Arabic and discovered the oxford Arabic picture dictionary, loved it and then requested the Spanish/English dictionary and loves it too!!With tools like these languages are a lot easier to learn-teachers should get discounts so that more young people can enjoy learning the different languages.

This book is "cute". It forces students to look at arrays of objects and find shortcuts for finding totals. I teach in the middle school grades and have this on my bookshelf for kids looking for something to read during a study hall. Might be a nice supplement to an elementary math program. My two year old son really liked the poems (of course couldn't do the math) and the pictures were really interesting for him to look at.

This book is wonderful. Finally there are great books that celebrate math!! This is an awesome book for older children. I'd say at least 1st grade (some Kindergartener would really enjoy it). However, done properly, it's too time consuming for a preschooler. My 3 year old, even though he's very bright, could only hang for 3 pages doing it the right way. After that we just kind of made up our own *way*. Don't be discouraged to buy it, though, because no matter what the age, you can never encourage math enough!!! Great book, great buy!!

The Grapes of Math is a realization for all that math is all around us. An elementary student addresses many situations familiar to everybody that involve math. Her situations and problems are on-going and lead in many different directions, yet all still relative to math. The book is thought provoking and discussion inspiring. The book is most effective in teaching the relevance of mathematics in everyday life through creative riddles. Through its illustrations and imaginative word problems the book creates wonders and fun with every turn of the page for all ages. The Grapes of Math is a big success at motivating kids to see mathematics as a fun necessity.

My son got an excellent math start with this book. Since then, math problems get his attention rather than something to avoid. Now he is the top math student in his class. He often shows up on the Beestar math honor roll (a nice web site for math practice at Beestar.org). I think The Grapes of Math is the cornerstone of his achievement. I highly recommend it.

The Grapes Of Math by Gregory Tang and Harry Briggs has one genre of math problems presented in an amusing fashion with good art. The genre is patterns of objects with breaks in the patterns. The children are expected to look at the patterns as groupings or shapes to figure out the total number of objects without counting one-by-one.

This is a good book. The kids like it. The problems are amusing, even bordering on tickling. My only problem with this book is that an overview of methods for solving the problems should be at the beginning. But so what? There are a few ways to look at the problems and the kids actually sit down to do them without being pestered.

Let me repeat this: after the initial disappointment that I had purchased math books, on their own the kids actually sat down to do the problems without being pestered. If this isn't an endorsement, then what is?

First of all, I love the title of this book! When I saw it, I knew inside would be something equally clever and unique. Oh, was I right! This book is a visual and poetic feast, and yet, its focus is not on literature, but math. There are 16 riddles which challenge you to open your mind and solve mathematical problems by using a different way of thinking. Each riddle cleverly gives you some advice on how to solve it. For example, in "One Hump or Two?" you are asked, "Can you add the humps you see? Don't just count them one, two, three...To help you find the right amount, group by fives before you count." If you are really stumped, there is a handy Answer section in the back, complete with diagrams of each page as well as an explanation. The computer-generated illustrations are very visually appealing and the rhyming riddles are catchy. I love the titles too: Know Dice, Win-Doze, For the Birds, and Doggone It! to name a few. What a brilliant concept for a book! This is sure to make math easier to understand, not to mention fun for kids.