Nonfiction Books

I'm usually concerned about purchasing items on line, especially books. I can honestly say that this experience was worth it. I would recommend this seller to anyone interested in purchasing good quality books at extremely reasonable prices.

Buy with confidence, I did!

It took a while for it to arrive...other than that...everything was great!

As a foreign student who just started learning English 5 years ago, the verbal section is definitely my major obstacle to mastering the SAT. When I first took the PSAT, my verbal percentile was only a 49, but after working through all eight levels of Vocabulary Workshop (A through H) it has increased to a 99 (that was a year ago). Therefore I highly recommend this book to you (sincerely).

This book is a highly successful tool for guiding and stimulating systematic vocabulary growth for students. It has also been extremely valuable for preparing students to take the types of standardized vocabulary tests commonly used to assess grade placement, competence for graduation, and/or college readiness.

This book contains approximately 300 basic words, selected on the basis of currency in present-day usage, frequency on recognized vocabulary lists, applicability to standardized tests, and current grade-placement research.

The words in the book are organized into 15 short, stimulating units featuring pronunciation, parts of speech, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and usage.

5 reviews (1 review for every 3 lessons) highlight and reinforce the work of the units through challenging exercises involving SAT-type critical-thinking exercises, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, analogies, sentence completions, word families...

4 accumulative reviews utilize standardized testing techniques to provide ongoing assessment of word mastery, all involving SAT-type critical-thinking.

Other features in this book include: a diagnostic test (which provides ready assessment of student needs at the outset of the term), a final mastery test (which provides end-of-term assessment of student achievement), word roots (which introduces the study of etymology)...

I live an hour away from Beech Creek, Alison Bechdel's tiny hometown and the setting for much of her graphic memoir Fun Home. I've always found the area oppressive: dark, looming mountains casting perpetual shadows on impoverished, dying valley towns. But after reading Fun Home, I revisited Beech Creek, to see Bechdel's childhood home and the grave of her father Bruce, and to remind myself of how cruelly ironic life can be.

Bruce Bechdel, a man who loves literature (in his early days he identified with F. Scott Fitzgerald; in his final days he reads Proust), an aesthete with a taste for the baroque detail of the Victorian era, and a creative and versatile designer of interior and exterior landscapes, is born and lives in rural central Pennsylvania, running the family funeral home and teaching at the local high school. He never quite fits in. Always sun-tanned and exquisitely dressed (no plaid hunter's shirts or chewing tobacco for him), persnickety and a bit prissy, but at the same time speaking with a back-country twang, Bruce seems uncannily out of place in Beech Creek.

And he's a closeted gay man, who has occasional affairs on the side and otherwise sublimates his repressed sexuality by obsessively restoring the Victorian-era house in which Alison grew up. The tension of his closeted life makes him aloof, prone to violent temper tantrums, controlling, and sometimes cruel to both wife and children.

Alison's Bechdel's memoir of him, and the way in which her own identity both became the inverse of his and yet in many respects parallels his, is a sophisticated narrative that underscores just how complex personal identity is. Alison is who she is, just as her father was who he was, because of the convergence of Beech Creek, sexuality, alienation, fun, repression, the need to be creative, the yearning for affection, the factuality of history and the re-creation of memory. There's no formulaic happy ending here, no artificial structuring to make more sense of the relationship between herself and her father than there really was. Instead, what the reader is offered is a profound, sensitive, bittersweet effort to explore memory in search of identity--an effort which throughout is punctuated by Bechdel's references to both Proust and James Joyce--and an appreciation for the ironies of fate which make us who we become.

Other reviewers have mentioned that they read the memoir at one setting. I found it so intense that I could only take it in small portions, and even then I sometimes felt overwhelmed. For in sharing her own identity-forming memories with us, she invites us to plumb more deeply into our own. And both exercises, although potentially liberating, can also be harrowing.

I knew she was a cartoonist but did not know the memoir would be in cartoon form. It was reasonably well written but her family members just didn't come alive for me.
As a lesbian, I found it especially upsetting to read about yet another woman who felt like she had come home when she put on her father's clothes.

An absolutely brilliant, hard to put down and very moving story. I go back to it often and think about it always. Beautiful, witty, hilarious.

Perhaps it is inevitable that I'd fall for this book, given that I'm a fan of comics --Art Speigelman, Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, Megan Kelso, Gilbert & Jamie Hernandez... and of course Alison Bechdel, whose Dykes to Watch Out For strip I've followed for a long time. Compared to that strip, this book has a more gentle pace and wry wit. It says as much as written biographies in a surprisingly compact way. The ending disappointed some, but surely real life is harder than fiction to tie up in a tidy bow.

I cannot praise this graphic novel enough. I was so impressed with way Bechdel wove her memoir together, building from one memory into the next. At first I found some of her writing potentially pretentious, something I have seen in the writings of other memoirs where the author wants the reader to know how much they know, to be impressed with the use of precise vocubulary, and the manipulation of time to unfold a story. Usually, these don't work because they are not used effectively so much as for effect. Bechdel, however, has no pretense. Vulnerable and transparent, how she tells her personal story is so powerful it breaks your heart and inspires you soul all at the same time. Her use of the same image, with a slightly different perspective, is not merely clever but perfection. If I could beg her to write about her relationship with her mother, I would. But what would be the point? Then I would want to know more about her relationships with her siblings, with her lovers, with her neighbors. I could never have enough. It is enough to hope for more.

This book is expensive and practically useless for self study, but a required text at my university-- and if you are reading this, then it is assumable that you are in the same situation and you're about to have to suck a mighty sour lemon. I am sorry to tell you that this book along with the workbook, which you will have to purchase separately if your school requires this text (for an additional $56 at the time of this review), are a big waste of money.

It is disorganized in it's approach and introduction to the language, the pertinent information is skimmed over, and some of the lessons presented are written in an ambiguous and confusing manner. For example, there are many short articles written in Spanish throughout the text which lack translation, which is a pain, but to top it off, some of the words used aren't in the glossary either.

Admittedly, the book is attractive, with many beautiful photographs and cute illustrations dealing with cultural aspects, but IMO, it is a substandard learning tool considering the hefty price tag. The publisher must make back-room deals to get colleges to require this text, forcing students to buy it. And if the student(s) receive Pell Grants or other financial aid, the taxpayer is actually buying it.

Unfortunately, you can't really get away with buying this textbook used because of the accompanying MySpanishLab (but you can save some money by buying the workbook used). The professors usually utilize the online MySpanishLab to assign homework and the new books come with a product key that is required for access-- but for one user only. The exception being that if you happen to be able to take your Spanish courses during the summer sessions. As of now, the publisher has not set up templates for the MySpanishLab for the 3 week summer classes, so you won't need the key. But this may soon change.

However, to be fair, this book may not such a bad deal for a college class because it is used for Spanish 1 and 2, so you don't have to buy another text for the 2nd class. Still, it is a disappointment because it is not worth keeping after completing the course work for a future reference, nor does it have resale value because of the need to buy it new to get the key to access the lab.

The "Practice Makes Perfect" series by Dorthy Richmond and "Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish" are far superior to "Arriba!" for learning, and much more affordable. I wish my university taught from them. Since they are great for self study, I can only imagine the superior learning experience I would have had if these books were the ones used for my classes. Fortunately, I had a fabulous professor and she compensated for this book's inadequecies.

Into Thin Air is a true account of a fatal expedition to the summit of Mount Everest in 1996. Jon Krakauer, a journalist and hobby mountaineer, went with a group of climbers on their quest for the summit in order to document the effort for an American publication. Due to bad weather, some poor choices, and competition between summit guide companies, four of the five teammates in his climbing group never made it back down the mountain.

The book seems to be a way for Krakauer to purge some of the demons that have plagued him since Everest, but also a tangible way to factually account for how disaster struck the expedition. Krakauer takes great pains throughout the book to honor the memory of those climbers who perished during the descent.

I learned so much from this book. I never understood how risky climbing such a high peak was - the freezing cold, the unbelievably thin air, the tiny ridges which must be navigated, the crazy interdependence you must share with the other climbers on the mountain. Without bottled oxygen, most climbers would never make it to the top and back. The incredible lack of oxygen at high altitudes causes swelling in the brain, leads to fluid seepage into the lungs, etc. Combined with the freezing cold and the probability of bad weather, it's a miracle that anyone makes it up the mountain and back down in reasonably good health. The more I read this book, the more I understood how truly crazy you have to be to undertake climbing Everest.

I also found the commercialization of climbing Everest utterly mesmerizing. Experienced guides can charge clients $70,000 a pop to guide them to the summit, and competition among guides for business is cutthroat. So, in some cases, you may see guides who are taking risks to get clients to the summit because they've anted up the money AND because guides want a high success rate of getting clients to the top. (A success rate they can later emphasize in order to drum up new business.)

This would all be capitalism as usual, of course, if getting to the top of the mountain wasn't such a risk of life and limb. Krakauer mentions on more than one occasion that one could frequently see corpses on one's way up (or down) the mountain, a sad fact of how dangerous the endeavor can be.

Although this book isn't a pleasure to read (it's more of a clammy-hands, up all night kind of venture, as you are desperate to complete the book), the story is gripping and true. Krakauer goes to great pains to demonstrate the veracity of his account, with footnotes and a lengthy response to those who have criticized his documentation of events. At heart, the man is a journalist, and he fact-checks via exhaustive interviews with other climbers on the mountain and cites from interviews individuals have granted to other outlets to bolster his account.

I found it a fascinating tale of one of the deadliest seasons the mountain has ever seen. Not to be missed.

"..I hoped that something would be gained by spilling my soul in the calamity's immediate aftermath, in the roil and torment of the moment I wanted my account to have a raw, ruthless sort of honesty that seemed in danger of leaching away with the passage of time and the dissipation of anguish."

As an avid mountain climber in his youth, Jon had always wanted to climb the Everest. However, as he grew up his dreams faded away into the practicality of a family life. All that changed dramatically when Outside magazine, where he was a contributing editor, commissioned him to write a story about the commercialization of Everest, and agreed to fund him to go all the way to the top as part of Rob Hall's guided expedition of 1996.

The expedition ended in a disaster, when on summit day, a storm blew up out of nowhere and several members of Hall's expedition, as well as Scott Fischer's guided expedition got stuck on the slopes on the way back from the summit.

Five people from the 2 expeditions died as a direct result of the storm, including the two leaders Hall and Fischer. Of course, Jon and many others survived through that difficult day, and many (including Jon) successfully climbed the summit.

Into Thin Air is a chillingly personal and detailed account of this episode. Jon's book gives a detailed description of all the people who were on the peak at that time and the incidents leading upto the disaster and beyond. At times his too-honest approach doesn't hold back from questioning the judgments of several individuals, some of whom died, and many of whom are still alive.

Jon is equally critical of himself, and hasn't spared himself in his analysis of the events around the calamity. "My actions - or failure to act - played a direct role in the death of Andy Harris. And while Yasuko Namba lay dying on the South Col, I was a mere 350 yards away, huddled inside a tent, oblivious to her struggle, concerned only with my own safety."

Into Thin Air raises many difficult moral questions, wrapped inside the tortuous circumstances in which these individuals were coping with the effect of lack of oxygen to the brain. Instead of choosing to answer them in his own way and make judgments of right and wrong, Jon chooses to lay every fact in front of the reader to let them form their own conclusions.

Jon's book is a must read for those who aspire to challenge themselves physically, by going to the Everest or otherwise. But it's also a must read for many of us who encounter situations in our lives where we have to make instant and tough decisions in circumstances where our intellect and emotional control can be excused for failing itself, and where each action can significantly impact the lives of others. While Jon's book isn't a moral guide of any sort, it does force us to introspect by introducing us to an extreme situation which most us of would likely never encounter.

Into This Air is written in a fast paced narrative style, almost like a fiction thriller with some drama thrown in. Go read this book -it's guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seats.

P.S. : The title of this review is borrowed from the name of Scott Fischer's adventure company.

This book is both an engrossing account of a perilous journey up Mt. Everest...the "top of the world"...and a deeper study of what drives individuals to willingly take on great, and known, risks. It is this unique balance of best-seller caliber action and deeper content that make "Into Thin Air" stand out for me.

Krakauer's writing caters to a wide audience and he brings credibility and first-hand experience to the subject matter. When delving into the larger question of what drives people to take on risk, however, his own point of view looms large. As the title of this book includes the words, "A Personal Account," this is understandable, but I found the author's personal outlook overshadowed the theme of life and risk.

Overall, this is a book well worth reading. It offers a gripping account of a harrowing set of events in the loftiest areas on Earth.

Even though the title of the review is what it is, the book does has some interesting tidbits about high altitude mountaineering. For non climbers and arm-chair adventurers it would satisfy you, as the author writes well. You'll learn some intrinsic details, enough to keep the "how and what" types occupied. For this the book gets it's two stars -- good writing and technical details (like the effects of high altitude sickness).

But what makes this book really hard to stomach though, and how a reader can learn to despise the author, is how critical the author is about those in the expedition. Usually I like to know the "real story" in adventure disasters, to know the interpersonal reactions (like the character chemistry in the Scott South Pole Expedition), yet I draw the line at common decency. The Japanese woman climber, he complained about what she carried, claiming it helped to contribute in her death. That cold. Then in the end of the book the author tells of how he tries to cope with the tragedy, and the death of the very people he was critical over. It comes off self-serving, and after the meat puppetry, even put on. Guess the author tries to cope with some anger and denial, which means he didn't recover enough after the tragedy to write the book without it, and would explain how upsetting a read this book can be.

Get the book if you like mountaining stories. Get it for some history (some tidbits about the IMAX expedition in the book). But don't get it if you have a heart, you'll be wanting to tear pages out of the book as he pokes the dead in the eyes.

Of all the books that I have read, this is the best. Absolutely fascinating. And, in my opinion, it's an adventure story that can be enjoyed by folks who aren't necessarily into mountain climbing. My dad gave this book to me as a gift, and he being a writer himself had told me that he thought it was one of the best books he had ever read. I've since given it as a gift to a few of my friends. Also, another fun book by Krakauer is Eiger Dreams, which is a collection of short climbing/survival stories. I'd highly recommend Into Thin Air!

I work on the forefront of the biofuels industry for an engineering design firm that works with rising biofuel technologies. First let me says that I HAVE NOT read Mr. Blume's entire book. The sections that I have read, however, make some rather untrue statements. For example, in Myth #1 Blume states that oil has a negative net energy output, meaning that it requires more energy invested than it puts out. That means that it takes more than 1 barrel of oil to produce one barrel of oil. If this were true, then it would take more than one barrel of oil to extract one barrel of oil out of the ground and refine it. Realistically, the oil companies use the barrels of oil that they extract to produce and refine their oil. Let's use an example and say that it takes 2 barrels of oil to produce 1 barrel of oil. Where do those 2 barrels of oil come from? They come from the ground. Let's be clear on something. Whenever you extract oil from the ground, you are adding to your total output. Those 2 barrels are NOT energy investments. So when you need 2 barrels of oil to produce 1 barrel, you are extracting 3 barrels of oil and using up two of them for a net output of 1 barrel of oil.


Another untrue claim is that we can completely replace 100% of our motor fuel consumption. This is not true. The USDA and DOE published a report saying that we can displace about 30% of our motor fuel consumption using farmland and forest lands. At best we can displace maybe 40%. And realistically, the displacing probably won't happen for quite a while.

Like I said before, I have not read the entire book. Maybe the rest of uses sound logic and diligent research. Maybe not. Make sure you check your facts and do research. Many people make claims and state them as facts, when in reality, they did not do their homework. And make sure to do your homework on the things that I have said too.

The most informative and comprehensive book on this subject that has ever been written. It definitely resolves the issues on how and the best ways to absorb ethanol in our fuel obsessed economy. If you have any questions, then look no further for the answer. If you are skeptical, then look no further for the answer. It will change your mind on ethanol, that is a fact. A must read for everyone living in the world today if you meet the following qualification: you eat, you drive, you work, and you buy.. Buy this book.

This book is a copy paste compilation of old, past due information. Mostly 3 to 4 decades old. Five dollars worth. It was another good sale pith example of people making money of those who look for a positive change.

This book delves into the kind of information that could help us avoid making the same mistakes over and over. If it can help create awareness of how susceptible the public is to being flim-flammed by the Oil Industry experts and its sycophants imbedded throughout the government and media we could clean this mess up. The book shows that it was the oil interests who politicized energy not the author of this book.

Contrary to the specious complaints of some, this book doesn't pretend to be a "How To" book on making alcohol out of fruit... which is plain from a quick look at the table of contents. Try a brewers store. Besides it is illegal to make alcohol in any useful quantities without an expensive license...ever heard of the ATF? ...good grief

So full of garbage and NO real information. DON'T waste your money. My mother bought this book and I have gone through it along with the dvd (just him talking, no plans). The book is disorganized with no real schematics (plans) for building a distillery. I did better searching online for free. Plus who has a ton of corn, wheat, donuts, or any of the substances mentioned available. Save your money and fill-up your car. Because this book is useless.

The question are a lot for each subject.
they all include keys, which help for social studies.
but doesn't teach the secret to a successful test result.
Basically is a Question book with answer from the previews test;
make for you to practice. If you're looking for a teaching book, this is not the one.

With the practice tests inside and how it is written, so my son can understand it, it will help him greatly.

you can know your level and estimate how much point you can get after doing practise test in this book. very helpful.

I bought the book thinking that it would be more for my money. And the truth is that it is more for money. A lot more. This book is huge! And unless you are going to take all of the subjects, it is too big to carry around. It is a lot easier to study from a lighter book, than this monster. I do recommend the series, but be reasonable and buy separate books.

The Official Study Guide for all SAT Subject Tests isn't a study guide at all, as is the case with most if not all of College Board's study guide publications. This book includes only one previously administered test per subject area, which isn't adequate enough to determine the knowledge you have mastered in the subject. The exams themselves must be at least several years old, and the conversion charts reflect the performance of past years; test writers change over time as well as student competitiveness. The part that probably ticks people off the most is that NO answer explanation is included. Because this is the only SAT Subject Test book published by the actual test writing company, many have no choice but to buy this. Just because there are no other publications of previously administered exams doesn't make it right for College Board to sloppily take a past exam booklet and add answer keys. Another problem with this book is that half of it is foreign language exams. Almost no student takes more than one language test, if any at all. The foreign language exams are dead weight. The CD included only contains listening parts. College Board needs to do better, especially for the prices it charges students for the standardized tests it administers. Unless College Board updates the exams, adds an answer key explanation, or includes more exams, this book doesn't help much, but for $13 (Amazon) or $19 (College Board), it's better than nothing. If you think about buying it, buy it early, since you're most likely not going to take more than four SAT Subject Tests, and using it for just one practice test is a waste.

This is a helpful informative book, especially helpful for new teachers.
However, I would also recommend it for experienced teachers for some new ideas.

This book is simple and clear in focus and structure. It has great strategies and suggestions for implementation in classrooms of various grade levels. This is a great resource if you are looking to improve your classroom community and overall communication skills of your students.

Wonderful, applicable strategies to build community in every classroom! In every school building! Great resource full of ideas.

I am a 6th grade teacher moving to 2nd grade this year. This book was a HUGE help in preparing me to organize my morning meeting. It is an easy read and has lots of helpful tips. I can't wait to start school this year and start my morning meetings!
If you are an elementary teacher, buy this book! You won't regret it!The Morning Meeting Book (Strategies for Teachers, 1)

This resource is an excellent buy. After cutting morning meeting out of my classroom routines, I realized that it's not what I should have done. I wish that I had this book in the beginning of the year to help me with the morning meeting. There are so many wonderful ideas and activities in this book. If you get this book, I would also highly recommend Morning Meeting, Afternoon Wrap-up by Donna Whyte. That is also an excellent resource. The two together will give you what you need for your morning meeting.

Would recommend this book to anyone that wants to give a gift to a girl.

I bought this for my granddaughter who is almost sixteen. She loves it and has found many ideas for fun activities this summer.

I bought these books for my granddaughters. I saw this book at a baby shower and could not put it down. My only regret is that these books do not come with a jacket cover and one book was torn on the front edge of the book.

My nine year old twin girls have this and the dangerous book for boys as well. Both are well-loved, but the hit fraction is perhaps a bit higher on topics in the boys' book. I say ignore the gender and let the kids have fun.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!! It reminds me so much of my childhood. I bought it for myself, but had a wonderful time sharing it with my Nanny (my grandmother.) Although I'm pretty yound and my Nanny is pretty old, we both had fun reading through this book and remembering the things we did when we were little! This is a great book for a mother and daughter or a grandmother and granddaughter to share, and will be charrished for years and years!

PRO: A witty a book that makes learning about English grammar fun!

CONS: I wish it were longer!

CONCLUSION: In the world of SMSes, IMs, and emails, we have sacrificed grammar. As a writer, I appreciate good writing. The way you write tells a lot about you, so get this book and beef up on your grammar!

Humorous, easy reading. The author falls on the slightly more conventional side of the grammatical fence (insisting, for example, that "their" is an incorrectly plural gender-neutral pronoun and should not be used as a singular) (I myself do not fall as conventionally and so found myself in disagreement upon several points--including this one). So far, I am reading it as I work out: I skim through the parts that are overly familiar (still written with humor so worth at least skimming), dwell on the points upon which I am less sure, and feel most pleased overall to have been reading it. An entertaining way to brush up on English grammar as we ought to have learned it in grade school. A most delicious "spoonful of sugar" for the "medicine" of grammatical review.

Open it to any page and learn something. Good index when you need something specific.

This was one of the first grammar books I purchased when I began writing my weekly Grammar Tips from The Red Pen Editor. It is a clear, understandable guide for all your grammar questions. Highly recommended to anyone with grammar-phobia.
Karen L. Reddick, author of Grammar Done Right!

Do you find yourself mixing up your it's and its? Do you know the difference between all ready and already? Do you ever blindly throw commas into sentences, hoping at least one will be correct?

Woe is I solves these grammar woes and more. Patricia O'Conner clears the jargon and mystery surrounding grammar. Using simple language, she reviews pronouns, numbers, possessives, verbs, punctuation, clichés, word usage, danglers, bygone rules, and e-mail etiquette. Her book is essentially a lengthy list of the dos and don'ts of grammar, covering the common mistakes almost everyone makes.

But that's also a negative of Woe is I. More experienced writers may tire of what seems blindingly obvious to them. O'Connor doesn't go over the technical details of grammar, such as the difference between gerunds and infinitives. People looking for a comprehensive grammar guide should perhaps look elsewhere. People looking for a light grammar guide are in the right spot.

I am a little dismayed, however, over one big mistake in the book. O'Conner repeatedly claims that apostrophes are used to form the plurals of years, abbreviations, and letters. The letters part is correct (as a way to distinguish between A's and the word As). But all the style guides (which set the standard in language usage) I've read state that letters are the only exception. Years and abbreviations need only an "s," not an apostrophe and an "s."

Other than that mistake, given the right audience, Woe is I is a good resource.