Average customer rating:
- A little frustrating
- Good for schools and homeschools
- Excellent Resource - BUT you must have the audio for pronunciation (more)
- Long live Minimus
- Great for beginners
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Minimus Pupil's Book: Starting out in Latin (Cambridge Latin Texts)
Barbara Bell
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Similar Items:
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Minimus Audio CD
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Minimus Teacher's Resource Book: Starting out in Latin (Cambridge Latin Texts)
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Minimus Secundus Pupil's Book: Moving on in Latin
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Learning Latin through Mythology
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Minimus Audio Cassette: Starting out in Latin
ASIN: 0521659604 |
Book Description
This elementary Latin course for 7-10 year olds combines a basic introduction to the Latin language with material on the history and culture of Roman Britain. Highly illustrated, the book contains a mixture of stories and myths, grammar explanations and exercises, and background cultural information. Pupils are drawn into the material as they read about the lives of a family living in a community at Vindolanda; the adventures of the children and the family cat and mouse provide interest throughout. As well as offering a lively introduction to Latin and classical studies, Minimus also has cross-curricular relevance. The material on the community at Vindolanda can be used to supplement studies of the Romans at KS2. The grammatical content helps to develop language awareness, and provides a solid foundation from which learners can progress to further English or foreign language studies. The Teacher's Resource Book provides support, particularly for non-Classicists. It includes teaching guidelines, English translations of the Latin passages, and additional background information, plus photocopiable worksheets.
Customer Reviews:
A little frustrating.......2007-09-23
We do not "homeschool" but I wanted to use this book to teach my daughter Latin as a supplement to what she's learning in school. So far I have found it to be frustrating. Mostly because all the words are not defined. I have been having her translate the cartoons but she is not able to do it completely because of the lack of definitions. It would also be helpful to have a comprehensive glossary at the end. I have a Latin dictionary but it's not terribly helpful. For instance, they introduce "est" but none of the tenses. So along comes "erit" and I'm not sure how they're supposed to know that that is the future tense and means "is going to be"? And "erit" is not in the Latin dictionary. I am now going to have to sit down and write up a spreadsheet with definitions of all the words.
The mouse is cute and I like the addition of Roman culture and history.
Good for schools and homeschools.......2007-08-23
This is an excellent alternative to Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. It is engaging and fun without being gimmicky. I have taught Latin using a variety of texts for over 10 years-- this is the perfect textbook for elementary school students or homeschoolers looking for a solid introduction to Latin language and ancient culture. This book is also perfect for students studying the ancient Mediterranean (perhaps using Story of the World or another such text). It has much useful and fascinating information on daily life in the ancient world.
The teacher's manual that accompanies this book is fraught with ideas for projects and classroom activities.
Excellent Resource - BUT you must have the audio for pronunciation (more).......2007-07-04
This is very entertaining, very versatile -- there are so many activities to be used for reinforcement that one truly will not be able to do them all. Even though I had Latin in High School, I had to purchase the audio CD - I found it to be the missing component to the kids' enjoying their lessons thoroughly. The Audio is an enormous help -- easy to understand and a practical learning aid. I also used photos off the internet of present day Vindolanda which gaves the kids an excellent perspective of the area about which they are learning. Because of the great versatility of the series and the many ways to branch out and make the lessons interesting, relevant AND still have your students learn Latin, I would definitely recommend this series AND the audio component.
Long live Minimus.......2007-05-14
This book is a very entertaining way to introduce basic latin for young and inquisitive minds. I liked the humerous stories coupled with the classic mythology.
Now I look for latin words in everyday life with a lot more awareness than before. Long live minimus!
Great for beginners.......2007-02-17
My husband reads this book to our toddler and both enjoy the simple words and concepts. It's perfect for little ones or beginners.
Customer Reviews:
this is an amzing and very practical book!.......2001-08-23
this is such a great book if you are looking for a book that gives basic developmental guidelines for reading AND some wonderful activities to do with children! the focus is on children birth to 3rd grade! I absolutely LOVE it!
Excellent Kindergarten Resource.......2000-03-30
As a Kindergarten teacher, I have found the Starting Out Right book to be one of the best resources that I have ever used in my classroom. The text is very easy to read and very user friendly. The activities are great for any teacher making the changes in education. I only wish that I had found this book years ago. I would recommend this book for any teacher who is teaching reading strategies. In fact, my district is purchasing this book for ALL kindergarten teachers for our personal resource library.
Book Description
How can a young couple start off on the right foot, helping to ensure that their marriage remains strong and vibrant? This dynamic 60-day devotional from well-known Christian counselor H. Norman Wright is written expressly for pre-engaged, engaged or dating couples. The Starting Out Together Couples Devotional allows engaged couples to spend quality time together, learning what God says about marriage success. This beautifully designed devotional is a practical, inspirational tool that will help prepare couples of all ages for the wonder and mystery of marriage.
Customer Reviews:
Could be better.......2007-06-08
My fiancé and I were interested in having a good reading material that would help us prepare for marriage. After searching online and in local bookstores, we decided to acquire this book (among others).
We read a section every night and discuss a little about the topic afterwards. I wish the book were based more on Biblical teaching. Although it has a verse from the Bible at the beginning of each section, and the topic relates to that verse, the discussion is barely related to the Scriptures. It is based on the author's personal experience as Marriage Counselor and common sense.
In addition, I have this feeling after reading the book that the author's intent is to "warn" people about marriage rather than to make them feel good about what is to come. Phrases such as "have you ever dealt with frustration? Wait until marriage to know all about it!"
In general, it conveys the message that communication is the base of a successful marriage relationship. While some of the topics are OK, others are so obvious that is hard to discuss anything about them! In summary, there are better and more in-depth books out there! We have already found some.
Great start!.......2007-03-09
My boyfriend (at the time) bought this book to do togeather. It's excellent. There are a few that are kinda "silly" but still good. We are now engaged, and we are almost done with the book. It's a good conversation starter. Or some of them are just good to soak in.
A great buy for couples.......2002-05-30
This book is really good, because it gets you and your significant other talking about important issues that matter. So, in a sense, this book is a conversation starter. I recommend this book for couples that are seeking a deeper relationship. Word of caution though. This book, I feel, is more directed at the engaged couple, but there are still some really good things in there for you two.
A few helpful insights but I didn't learn much.......1998-10-24
Maybe it is simply because I have read many resources about Christian marriage, but I did not receive much benefit from this devotional book. My fiance and I picked up this book, because it is the only one we have seen on the market for engaged or dating couples, rather than married couples. The reading is not backed up by much scripture.
Book Description
In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald
revisits the basic principles behind the English and its many variations. Throughout this easy-to-read guide readers are aided by a wealth of notes, tips, and warnings from the author, while key strategies, ideas, and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. This book is ideal for the improving players.
Customer Reviews:
A very good introduction to the English Opening.......2005-12-21
This is a fine introductory chess book about the English opening, with excellent explanations of what each side is trying to accomplish in a variety of positions. And yes, one could even use it as a repertoire book for White, I suppose. But I would use more than just this book for that, and I'll explain why.
After you open 1 c4 let's say Black replies e6. The best reply for White is probably 2 Nc3, so you try it. But Black plays 2...d5. Now what? Well, I think you'd be best off with 3 d4, settling for the White side of a Queen's Gambit Declined. Depending on what Black does, you may get to a Tartakower (after 3...Nf6 4 Nf3 Be7), or a Tarrasch (3...c5 4 cxd5 exd5), or a Semi-Tarrasch (3...Nf6 4 Nf3 c5), or a von Hennig-Schara Gambit (3...c5 4 cxd5 cxd4 [I call this the "Trash Gambit" for short]), or a Ragozin (3...Nf6 4 Nf3 Bb4), or a Semi-Slav (3...Nf6 4 Nf3 4...c6). None of these are in this book.
Given that we ought to know how to play some 1 d4 openings for White to do justice to 1 c4, let's see what other transpositions we might come up with:
1 c4 Nc6 2 d4. Let Black play that Chigorin Defence, which is not in this book.
1 d4 d6 2 Nc3. Sure, Black may play 2...e5, which is even discussed in this book, but we're probably headed for the White side of a King's Indian, which is not.
1 c4 b6 2 d4. As McDonald says, this is a good line, but further discussion of it is outside the scope of this book.
1 c4 f5 2 d4. Let Black play the Dutch, which is, of course, not in this book.
1 c4 c6. Here, I advise 2 e4 d5 3 exd5 Nf6! 4 d4. The idea is to try to get the White side of an isolated queen pawn attack (also reachable from the Nimzo-Indian, the Semi-Tarrasch, or the Queen's Gambit Accepted), via the Panov against the Caro-Kann. Black typically plays 3...cxd5, allowing White to postpone playing d4, and giving Black fewer options in the Panov. If Black does play 3...Nf6, White ought not take the pawn but continue with the Panov. White also needs to be prepared for 2...e5, which often transposes into an Old Indian. Of course, none of this is in the book.
1 c4 g6 2 e4 is the Averbach against the Modern, or maybe the White side of a King's Indian, neither of which are in this book.
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 g6 3 e4 will get us into a King's Indian as well. McDonald recommends this move order for those of us who want to do that.
Well, what is in the book? Mostly lines involving 1 c4 c5 and 1 c4 e5.
1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 is our bread and butter, and it is a big focus of the book. I learned quite a bit about this line in the book (in particular, I've learned why the move I've been playing here, 4 d3, is probably not as good as I thought). But even here, Black can play 3...d6, after which we'll be in a King's Indian or Old Indian, neither of which are in the book. Worse, Black can play 3...e4 4 Ng5 b5, the infamous Bellon Gambit. That really ought to be in this book, but it isn't. White's best move is 5 d3 here.
1 c4 c5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 e6 6 g3 is in the book; it's a good line for White. But in this line, if Black plays 5...g6, that leads to a Maroczy Bind, and that's considered a Sicilian Defence, so it is not in this book.
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 c5 3 g3 e6 4 Nf3! b6 5 Bg2 Bb7 6 d4 cxd4 7 Qxd4 Be7 8 0-0 d6 transposes us into another main focus of the book, the Hedgehog. It's a good defence for Black, but I do not like it because Black always seems to be just one minor error away from getting mated on the Kingside. McDonald gives us a good example where this indeed happens, as well as some other examples where Black does much better.
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 cxd5 Nxd5 (inviting a Grunfeld) 4 g3 g6 is in this book (generally, it leads to a Dragon Reversed). But 4...e6 leads back to a Tarrasch defence, which isn't in the book.
1 c4 e6 2 Nc3 Nf6 (or 1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6) is indeed in the book, and it is another important line. I used to play 3 Nf3 here, but this book has convinced me that 3 e4 (the Mikenas) is a better idea.
In any case, there's plenty of good material in this book, and I highly recommend it.
Really good if you want to learn about the English.......2005-09-26
If you are looking for a new opening (as white), and are thinking about the English, then this is the perfect book for you. It covers the fundamentals of almost all main variations in a clear and concise way. Instead of a lot of lines, you will find strategic ideas and motives founded on the current position. This helps a lot, because even if you actually don't get the book's lines on the board, you can find what to do.
Moreover, the majority of the illustrative examples (illustrative indeed) are Grand Master's games (Karpov, Kasparov, Anand, etc.) with no stupid dumb blunders (but instructive positional ones). You can easily spend a lot of time reading this book.
Now, maybe this is a bad book if you are already familiar with the English opening and want to improve your game. In that case, you need an English Opening Repertoire Book (with specific variations, and a lot of lines and analysis!). This book only covers the `sharpest' lines in each variation.
good book for getting an overview about english opening.......2003-10-10
I bought this book facing the fact there really wasn't a general book telling me about the english opening. This book gives fairly balanced guidelines for both white and black about different english systems, many other books on market concentrate on specific lines. Although I'm still reading it and playing games with board, I guarantee you won't waste your money if you get a copy. I'm a 1500 player so I can't really say about the lines and if they are a little bit out-dated (as some reviews tell you), but I think for me this is just a good book. I like the idea that you can learn a solid opening and yet the opponent is not always so happy to face 1.c4. The layout of the book is not the most pleasant to my eyes (single column), but as a bonus you got plenty of space to write your own thoughts. There are a lot of guidelines along the journey, telling sometimes very general and useful things. I like the annotations of the selected games, and it's nice to study those playing the moves with board. This book is somewhat bigger than in other Starting Out -series, so you'll find here a lot to study.
Nice book indeed.
A good beginner's manual on this opening........2003-09-01
This is an excellent book.
A local student just purchased this book, we spent almost the entire afternoon (Saturday) studying together.
My student is only nine, he obviously does not know much about chess - he only has been playing for about six months in total.
He finds this book to be fantastic. He loves it and cannot put it down. I agree, it is carefully and concisely written ... made to order for the average beginner or intermediate player.
If you have been playing chess for only a short while and are looking for a very solid and basic "HOW TO" type of book, then I can highly recommend this book to you! (You will eventually graduate from this book, better have Nunn's Chess Openings or MCO-14 sitting on the shelf.)
Average customer rating:
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Starting Out in the Thirties (Cornell Paperbacks)
Alfred Kazin
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0801495628 |
Amazon.com
The great American literary critic Alfred Kazin's passion for books grew out of his belief in their power to shape the real world. First published in 1965, this classic memoir chronicles Kazin's apprentice years, during which he enthusiastically participated in New York's left-wing cultural life--vivid portraits of V.F. Calverton, Philip Rahv, and Malcolm Cowley are among the book's many pleasures--while writing his pioneering study of American literature, On Native Grounds. Few authors convey their love for art as infectiously as does Kazin in descriptions of works as diverse as Fontemara by Ignazio Silone and Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets. He writes with equal warmth about family, friends, and lovers. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
"A stunning book. . . . Perhaps the most evocative reminiscence of a vital corner of the nineteen-thirties that we are likely to get. A beautifully written memoir in which the author's location of himself as a man, an intellectual, and a moral being is interwoven with the chronicle of an era. It is a wonderful book."--Eliot Fremont-Smith, New York Times
"Men lived in the thirties, Kazin is saying, with peculiar stresses, particular faces and one or another kind of relationship to the age which bred them and asked them to respond to it. His book is as admirable a record of how they did that as any we have been given."--Richard Gilman, Dissent
Average customer rating:
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Starting Out or Starting over: A Guide for Writing
Karen S. Uehling
Manufacturer: Harpercollins College Div
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ASIN: 0065001974 |
Average customer rating:
- Over-focussed on Atwood's poetry
- Trivial factual errors raise suspicion of substance
- Factual errors raise suspicion
- Factual errors raise suspicion of unreliability
- Delightful analysis of the life and times of a young Atwood
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The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out
Rosemary Sullivan
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0002554232 |
Customer Reviews:
Over-focussed on Atwood's poetry.......2004-01-10
Despite the author's tedious insistence that this is a "not biography" (when it obviously is a biography), the first half of this book is quite wonderful: a chance to meet the child who grew into the brilliant, steely writer, including some lovely, hilarious anecdotes that shed considerable light on her work.
But, as the book proceeds, it becomes increasingly focussed on Atwood's poetry--page after page is devoted to excerpts and analysis--while her much more widely read novels, the primary reason she is of international interest, are covered with bizarre brevity. Though admittedly not Atwood's finest work, "Lady Oracle," her first major bestseller and a book with obvious autobiographical significance, gets 3/4 of a page. Even Surfacing, a strenuously profound novel and surely worthy of eggheady analysis, gets short shrift.
This imbalance undermines the book's value, and while The Red Shoes is a must for any serious Atwood fan, prepare to be frustrated.
Trivial factual errors raise suspicion of substance.......2003-09-25
This biography is wholly interesting, particularly in its account of the early days of the Anansi Press and the activities of such people as Dennis Lee, Michael Ondaatje, Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood herself in creating a new hospitable environment for Canadian writing. But its lapses are considerable and it betrays the signs of haste and of deficient editing. The "red shoes" conceit - an extensively belaboured allusion to the 1940s Moira Shearer movie about a ballerina who discovers that in that era it was not possible to be both an artist and a wife -- might have been marginally insightful as a passing reference. But as the title of the book and as a recurrent image it is after a time irritating in its inappropriateness to Margaret Atwood's life. The biography itself (albeit that Ms Sullivan protests that it is a "not biography") extensively demonstrates what Atwood herself has frequently noted: that the knowledge of the Northern bush which frequently enters her fiction, the practicality and down-to-earth matter-of-factness of both her prose and the persona she presents in interviews and public appearances are grounded in a childhood wholly different from conventional 1940s little-girldom.
Moreover, the text is replete with relatively trivial factual errors which after a time become disturbing, for they raise the suspicion that Ms Sullivan is not to be trusted as to matters of real significance. In particular one notes that the lapses mostly have to do with matters of common knowledge to the ordinarily literate Canadian: what knowledge of Canadian circumstances, then, does Ms Sullivan bring to the task, and given the preoccupations of her subject Margaret Atwood, was Ms Sullivan the most appropriate author to undertake it?
And given that she did undertake it, surely more knowledgeable editors can be found in the Canadian publishing industry who could catch such lapses as these examples (pagination referring to the HarperCollins paperback edition of 1998):
Page 89 "[Northrop Frye]" had the look of the lay United Church preacher he moonlighted as on weekends." But it is well known that Frye was not a "lay preacher" but an ordained clergyman in the old, though unusual in Canada, tradition of clerical dons. Given that Ms Sullivan is a professor of English at the same university as Frye this lapse is especially puzzling.
Page 177 "Ordinary women were boring, shackled in domestic virtue as the 'Angel in the House.' (Margaret had picked up Virginia Woolf's phrase long before it gained common currency.")" But it is not Virginia Woolf's phrase; it is Coventry Patmore's, though Virginia Woolf was possibly the first to identify the virtue in the Victorian poem as suspect.
Page 183-4 "Directly across the street was a brick wall....This would become the wall where the executions occurred in The Handmaid's Tale." Well, we've already been told this; one would have thought that either one of the statements of this fact should have been deleted or that some acknowledgement of the repetition ("as has been noted," say) have been made so as to allay the reader's feeling that (to be kind) Ms Sullivan's proofreaders were lying down on the job.
Page 182 "Its steps were flanked by white pseudo-Corinthian columns,...." This seems an odd qualification: surely either they were Corinthian columns or they were not: the suggestion of faded ersatz elegance is not bolstered by the word "pseudo" and Corinthian columns are not only to be found on actual classical ruins.
Page 188 "Mr Atwood was floored by the ceremony...." - but elsewhere in the text Margaret Atwood's father is referred to as "Dr Atwood," and the inconsistency, while hardly a major flaw, is mildly irritating and adds to one's impression of general sloppiness of execution.
Page 204 "[John Glassco] had not yet published his famous fictional autobiography, Memoirs of Montparnasse." Well, was it fictional? There was nothing in the reviews at the time of its publication to indicate that it was fabricated; if subsequent literary discussion has revealed otherwise then surely Ms Sullivan should have provided at least a footnote to this effect.
Page 234 "Charlie had gotten a job teaching at the University of Calgary the previous fall," ie, presumably, in 1968, when there was no University of Calgary, but rather a University of Alberta, Calgary campus.
Page 242 Margaret Laurence, from Manitoba, and Jim Polk, Atwood's first husband, "could talk about the small Midwestern towns they had come from" -- but he was from Montana and that is most certainly not the "Midwest," at least not in US terminology, though arguably Manitoba is.
Page 212 "The FLQ ...[i]n 1963 had placed their first bombs in mail boxes and public buildings." Well no, the FLQ did not exist in 1963; it was the RIN.
Page 274 The people of Mulmur Township "still spoke in an Irish/English idiom that had survived from the nineteenth century....When they referred to slightly demented people they used the expression 'two bricks short of a load""-as though this cliché were not well known outside rustic Ontario, and indeed common throughout the English-speaking world, though possibly not so well known among University of Toronto academics.
Factual errors raise suspicion.......2003-09-20
This biography is wholly interesting, particularly in its account of the early days of the Anansi Press and the activities of such people as Dennis Lee, Michael Ondaatje, Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood herself in creating a new hospitable environment for Canadian writing. But its lapses are considerable and it betrays the signs of haste and of deficient editing. The "red shoes" conceit - an extensively belaboured allusion to the 1940s Moira Shearer movie about a ballerina who discovers that in that era it was not possible to be both an artist and a wife- might have been marginally insightful as a passing reference. But as the title of the book and as a recurrent image it is particularly irritating after a time in its inappropriateness to Margaret Atwood's life. The biography itself (albeit that Ms Sullivan protests that it is a "not biography") extensively demonstrates what Atwood herself has frequently noted: that the knowledge of the Northern bush which frequently enters her fiction, the practicality and down-to-earth matter-of-factness of both her prose and the persona she presents in interviews and public appearances are grounded in a childhood wholly different from conventional 1940s little-girldom.
Moreover, the text is replete with relatively trivial factual errors which after a time, however, become disturbing, for they raise the suspicion that Ms Sullivan is not to be trusted as to matters of real significance. In particular one notes that the lapses mostly have to do with matters of common knowledge to the ordinarily literate Canadian: what knowledge of Canadian circumstances, then, does Ms Sullivan bring to the task, and given the preoccupations of her subject Margaret Atwood, was Ms Sullivan the most appropriate author to undertake it?
Surely more knowledgeable editors can be found in the Canadian publishing industry who could catch such lapses as these examples (pagination referring to the HarperCollins paperback edition of 1998):
Page 89 "[Northrop Frye]" had the look of the lay United Church preacher he moonlighted as on weekends." But it is well known that Frye was not a "lay preacher" but an ordained clergyman in the old, though unusual in Canada, tradition of clerical dons. As a professor of English at the same university as Frye this lapse on Ms Sullivan's part is especially puzzling.
Page 177 "Ordinary women were boring, shackled in domestic virtue as the `Angel in the House.' (Margaret had picked up Virginia Woolf's phrase long before it gained common currency.")" But it is not Virginia Woolf's phrase; it is Coventry Patmore's, though Virginia Woolf was possibly the first to identify the virtue in the Victorian poem as suspect.
Page 183-4 "Directly across the street was a brick wall....This would become the wall where the executions occurred in The Handmaid's Tale." Well, we've already been told this; one would have thought that either one of the statements of this fact should have been deleted or that some acknowledgement of the repetition ("as has been noted," say) have been made so as to allay the reader's feeling that (to be kind) Ms Sullivan's proofreaders were lying down on the job.
Page 182 "Its steps were flanked by white pseudo-Corinthian columns,...." This seems an odd qualification: surely either they were Corinthian columns or they were not: the suggestion of faded ersatz elegance is not bolstered by the word "pseudo" and Corinthian columns are not only to be found on actual classical ruins.
Page 188 "Mr Atwood was floored by the ceremony...." - but elsewhere in the text Margaret Atwood's father is referred to as "Dr Atwood," and the inconsistency, while hardly a major flaw, is mildly irritating and adds to one's impression of general sloppiness of execution.
Page 204 "[John Glassco] had not yet published his famous fictional autobiography, Memoirs of Montparnasse." Well, was it fictional? There was nothing in the reviews at the time of its publication to indicate that it was fabricated; if subsequent literary discussion has revealed otherwise then surely Ms Sullivan should have provided at least a footnote to this effect.
Page 234 "Charlie had gotten a job teaching at the University of Calgary the previous fall," ie, presumably, in 1968, when there was no University of Calgary, but rather a University of Alberta, Calgary campus.
Page 242 Margaret Laurence, from Manitoba, and Jim Polk, Atwood's first husband, "could talk about the small Midwestern towns they had come from"-but he was from Montana and that is most certainly not the "Midwest," at least not in US terminology, though arguably Manitoba is.
Page 212 "The FLQ ...[i]n 1963 had placed their first bombs in mail boxes and public buildings." Well no, the FLQ did not exist in 1963; it was the RIN.
Page 274 The people of Mulmur Township "still spoke in an Irish/English idiom that had survived from the nineteenth century....When they referred to slightly demented people they used the expression `two bricks short of a load""-as though this cliché were not well known outside rustic Ontario, and indeed common throughout the English-speaking world, though possibly not so well known among University of Toronto academics.
Factual errors raise suspicion of unreliability.......2003-09-20
This biography is wholly interesting, particularly in its account of the early days of the Anansi Press and the activities of such people as Dennis Lee, Michael Ondaatje, Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood herself in creating a new hospitable environment for Canadian writing. But its lapses are considerable and it betrays the signs of haste and of deficient editing. The "red shoes" conceit - an extensively belaboured allusion to the 1940s Moira Shearer movie about a ballerina who discovers that in that era it was not possible to be both an artist and a wife -- might have been marginally insightful as a passing reference. But as the title of the book and as a recurrent image it is after a time irritating in its inappropriateness to Margaret Atwood's life. The biography itself (albeit that Ms Sullivan protests that it is a "not biography") extensively demonstrates what Atwood herself has frequently noted: that the knowledge of the Northern bush which frequently enters her fiction, the practicality and down-to-earth matter-of-factness of both her prose and the persona she presents in interviews and public appearances are grounded in a childhood wholly different from conventional 1940s little-girldom.
Moreover, the text is replete with relatively trivial factual errors which after a time become disturbing, for they raise the suspicion that Ms Sullivan is not to be trusted as to matters of real significance. In particular one notes that the lapses mostly have to do with matters of common knowledge to the ordinarily literate Canadian: what knowledge of Canadian circumstances, then, does Ms Sullivan bring to the task, and given the preoccupations of her subject Margaret Atwood, was Ms Sullivan the most appropriate author to undertake it?
And given that she did undertake it, surely more knowledgeable editors can be found in the Canadian publishing industry who could catch such lapses as these examples (pagination referring to the HarperCollins paperback edition of 1998):
Page 89 "[Northrop Frye]" had the look of the lay United Church preacher he moonlighted as on weekends." But it is well known that Frye was not a "lay preacher" but an ordained clergyman in the old, though unusual in Canada, tradition of clerical dons. Given that Ms Sullivan is a professor of English at the same university as Frye this lapse is especially puzzling.
Page 177 "Ordinary women were boring, shackled in domestic virtue as the 'Angel in the House.' (Margaret had picked up Virginia Woolf's phrase long before it gained common currency.")" But it is not Virginia Woolf's phrase; it is Coventry Patmore's, though Virginia Woolf was possibly the first to identify the virtue in the Victorian poem as suspect.
Page 183-4 "Directly across the street was a brick wall....This would become the wall where the executions occurred in The Handmaid's Tale." Well, we've already been told this; one would have thought that either one of the statements of this fact should have been deleted or that some acknowledgement of the repetition ("as has been noted," say) have been made so as to allay the reader's feeling that (to be kind) Ms Sullivan's proofreaders were lying down on the job.
Page 182 "Its steps were flanked by white pseudo-Corinthian columns,...." This seems an odd qualification: surely either they were Corinthian columns or they were not: the suggestion of faded ersatz elegance is not bolstered by the word "pseudo" and Corinthian columns are not only to be found on actual classical ruins.
Page 188 "Mr Atwood was floored by the ceremony...." - but elsewhere in the text Margaret Atwood's father is referred to as "Dr Atwood," and the inconsistency, while hardly a major flaw, is mildly irritating and adds to one's impression of general sloppiness of execution.
Page 204 "[John Glassco] had not yet published his famous fictional autobiography, Memoirs of Montparnasse." Well, was it fictional? There was nothing in the reviews at the time of its publication to indicate that it was fabricated; if subsequent literary discussion has revealed otherwise then surely Ms Sullivan should have provided at least a footnote to this effect.
Page 234 "Charlie had gotten a job teaching at the University of Calgary the previous fall," ie, presumably, in 1968, when there was no University of Calgary, but rather a University of Alberta, Calgary campus.
Page 242 Margaret Laurence, from Manitoba, and Jim Polk, Atwood's first husband, "could talk about the small Midwestern towns they had come from" -- but he was from Montana and that is most certainly not the "Midwest," at least not in US terminology, though arguably Manitoba is.
Page 212 "The FLQ ...[i]n 1963 had placed their first bombs in mail boxes and public buildings." Well no, the FLQ did not exist in 1963; it was the RIN.
Page 274 The people of Mulmur Township "still spoke in an Irish/English idiom that had survived from the nineteenth century....When they referred to slightly demented people they used the expression 'two bricks short of a load""-as though this cliché were not well known outside rustic Ontario, and indeed common throughout the English-speaking world, though possibly not so well known among University of Toronto academics.
Delightful analysis of the life and times of a young Atwood.......1999-04-25
This intriguing book tells about the early life of Margaret Atwood in great detail, and then skims through the last couple of decades. Rosemary Sullivan has done a remarkable job of recreating the '40's, '50's, '60's and '70's, and how they influenced (and eventually were influenced by!) Canada's #1 writer. Having interviewed Atwood, many of her friends and associates, ex-husband and present husband, and also using contemporary correspondence, Sullivan seems to have an authentic understanding of how Atwood developed into such an amazing, prolific writer. Always respectful, Sullivan keeps her focus on what in Atwood's life is relevant to her as a writer. This is a very intelligently written biography, with an incredible amount of research and very astute analyses, and should be a satisfying read for any fan of Margaret Atwood's, without feeling like you have invaded her privacy.
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Starting Out: A Guide to Teaching Adolescents Who Struggle with Reading
David W. Moore , and
Kathleen A. Hinchman
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Teaching Adolescents Who Struggle with Reading: Practical Strategies
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I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers
ASIN: 0321078101 |
Book Description
Starting Out presents feasible classroom practices for teaching middle and high school students who struggle as readers and writers. Respected authors, David Moore and Kathleen Hinchman, provide sound advice on how to address the fundamentals of teaching adolescents. This affordable long-awaited book is a practical down-to-earth guide written in easy-to-read prose.
Ideal for today's busy teachers, it emphasizes the important first steps to take during the first few days and weeks of a class. Just in time in an era of teacher shortages, this book is a welcome addition and a must-have for people entering the profession with abbreviated preparation and, for the first time, encountering adolescents who struggle with literacy.
For beginning secondary school educators concerned about designing a literacy plan for those who frequently struggle with academics.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Antioch Review, published by Antioch Review, Inc. on September 22, 1998. The length of the article is 627 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Mooring of Starting Out.
Author: John (English pop musician) Taylor
Publication:
The Antioch Review (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1998
Publisher: Antioch Review, Inc.
Volume: v56
Issue: n4
Page: p501(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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