Oxford University PressCritiques

The Oxford Children's Book of Famous People is a one-stop guide to the people who matter. This stylish and information-packed book tells the stories of 1000 women and men whose lives have influenced the course of history. Learn about the famous and the infamous - leaders from Genghis Khan toTony Blair; scientists and thinkers from Aristotle to Stephen Hawking; personalities from Rasputin to Michael Jordan. The text is organized alphabetically for easy reference, but there are also chronological and thematic directories linking people in time and by area of achievement. In this newedition the entries have been updated, and there are new biographies of such figures as George W Bush, J K Rowling, Julia Roberts and Steve Redgrave.

This is David's favorite book. He will read it aloud straight through when bored.

A Comparative Study

3/14/22

Superceded by Complete Bible NEB, cf.

This is the NT version of what the full Bible we now have, released 10 years later. Jerry and Richard determined we did not need the older NT-only versions (9/2015). They were actually listed as 220 Win and 225 Win

Every famous line from all the ages is in here. A great store of Knowledge,

nothing spectacular just a primer for what is contained in the VSI series. Good if your having trouble with figuring out what u want to read next.

Inestimable. Over 28,000 things identified in drawings many of them teccnical parts which we would fibd difficult in English.

Highly recommended.

(Fiction, Mystery, Historical)

From Amazon: “On the eve of his revolutionary new opera’s premiere, Charles Jessold murders his wife and her lover, and then commits suicide in a scenario that strangely echoes the plot of his opera—which (gentleman critic Leslie) Shepherd has helped to write.

Shepherd first shares his police testimony, then recalls his relationship with Jessold in his role as critic, biographer, and friend. And with each retelling of the story, significant new details cast light on the identity of the real victim in Jessold’s tragedy.”

This was one of The Wall Street Journal’s best fiction books of 2011, but it didn’t blow me away. The ending is phenomenal but the rest of the books is slower than molasses in January (and for all you young, hip city-dwellers: that’s pretty darn slow).

3½ stars½

Once indispensable, now made utterly pointless by the internet.

This is a must for writers, editors, and proofreaders. I fall into all three categories, thus it serves me well.

This is actually two books in one. The first part is "New Hart's Rules". This is a great reference tool for such as understanding when and when not to use bold, italics, capitalization, etc., plus many other intricate details that separate the serious writers and gifted editors from those who are determined to get published/get the job done as quick as possible.

Although this is a reference book, I "skim-read" this first part, gaining insights where needed.

The second book in this volume is called the "New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors". This is not a standard dictionary, but rather one that focuses on ambiguous or grammar, the differences between British and American English, and other spellings/rules that are not so obvious.

All aspiring writers should bear in mind that a good story should be backed up by good English style. Use this handbook and reduce the amount of time editors and proofreaders need to spend checking your work, allowing them to polish the manuscript to the highest standard possible, thus increasing the opportunity of literary agents and publishers noticing you.

Editors and proofreaders new to the business should not be without this guide.

I really like the usage notes in this dictionary.

New Oxford Style Manual

Oxford University Press

Billed as an essential handbook (regarded as the editor’s bible) for anyone involved in any way with text, or indeed anyone who is looking for an authoritative reference point on matters of spelling, style and presentation, this second edition combines updated versions of New Hart’s Rules and New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors first published in 2005. It reflects the work done for the third edition of the OED which draws from the vast Oxford English Corpus database of words.

New Hart’s Rules is designed for anyone working with text, not just those using it for academic publications. Its advice is relevant to anyone working with English, be they author, copyeditor, typesetter, working with books or any other printed medium, or involved with web content or online publishing. Although still based around the ‘house style’ of OUP, it
also gives details of contemporary practices in all areas of writing and publishing and usefully discusses the style differences between British and American publishing. The 20 chapters include matters such as how to punctuate and hyphenate, capitalization guidelines, how to prepare copy, use quotations and cite material, as well as how to prepare a Bibliography and Index, amongst much else.

The New Hart’s Rules came as a revelation when contrasted with my
much loved, well-thumbed but very elderly copy of Hart’s Rules. The design, layout and typeface of the book are excellent; the design is spacious and generous, every paragraph is numbered, which, with the judicious use of headings and bold, makes it a very user-friendly reference book – easy to dip in and out of, easy to skim through to find what one needs. There is a most useful Glossary, a number of Appendices including the invaluable list of proofreading marks, and an extensive Index. I liked the fact that it is much more informative and less didactic than the original Hart’s Rules, and also that the discussion regarding style differences between British and American writing is
carried on throughout. As one would expect, it has been fully brought up to date, including discussion of matters pertaining to internet and online publishing – the Bibliography section is particularly useful in this regard.

The second half of the book, New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, is a wonderful resource: a guide to all those words you need frequently to refer to on account of their spelling, capitalization, hyphenation etc. Plain English words – the ones you can never quite remember how to spell – foreign words, proper names, proprietary names…a veritable cornucopia of useful words (25,000 of them). All in all the New Oxford Style Manual is an invaluable and interesting reference tool for anyone working with the written word: I am sure that my copy will soon become as dog-eared, coffee-stained and well-thumbed as its hitherto invaluable predecessor.

Sally Ferard, September 2012

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2011647.html
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2047769.html

First off, I don't think I actually would recommend reading the Old Testament (or indeed the Bible) through from start to finish as I did. It wasn't written or compiled to be read in that way, and it doesn't do the text any services to read as if it were a novel, a short story collection, or a book of essays and meditations. I chose this approach because I wanted to feel that I had control of what I was reading, and that I was not missing anything, but if you want to get a fair flavour of it, it's probably better to follow one of the many reading guides available online and elsewhere, which are designed both to showcase the good bits and to keep the reader interested.

Second, a lot of it is pretty dull, actually. 2 Chronicles in particular comes close to Mark Twain's description of the Book of Mormon, as "choroform in print". Large chunks of the Pentateuch are lists of laws and, even less exciting, census returns. The historical bits have an awful lot of tediously horrible ethnic cleansing and dynastic struggle, leavened by the occasional good bit (the Saul/David/Solomon succession in particular). The prophets are rather indistinguishable in tone of outrage. I recommend finding some way of skipping the dull bits.

Third, the good bits are indeed good. I've singled out the Book of Job in a previous post; I found the Psalms generally inspiring and uplifting, and I've always been a fan of Ecclesiastes. The narrative histories, which I thought I knew fairly well, still had some surprises for me - in Numbers 12, God smites Moses' sister with leprosy for racism towards Moses' black wife, for instance. There are some fun bits in the prophets - Jonah, and the deuterocanonical addenda to Daniel (Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon). I also rather liked Sirach, aka Ecclesiasticus, which again is deuterocanonical. And 2 Maccabees is a fairly lucid, if brutal, historical note to finish on.

Fourth, there were indeed a few themes running through the entire OT whose importance I hadn't perhaps fully grasped: the importance of God's endowing his people with the land, the importance of the cult of the Temple, and the trauma of the Babylonian exile (which of course shaped most of the text we have very directly). I'm not saying that these are the only or even the main main themes, but that these are the ones whose importance was enhanced for me by reading through the entire thing.

As for the New Testament: it falls rather naturally into three sections. The Gospels and Acts are among the most readable narratives in the Bible; the most striking things are that the three synoptic gospels are so very close to each other, leaving John as the outlier, and that Luke's better Greek prose style comes through in almost any translation of his gospel and Acts. I am also struck every time that the Feeding of the Five Thousand is the only miracle other than the Resurrection reported in all four gospels.

I was much less familiar with the various epistles. They are not as easy to read as the gospels, combining as they do advice on local disputed, personal salutations, declarations about correct practice and belief, and attempts to put words on the ineffable (Hebrews in particular is an attempt at a theological manifesto avant la lettre). I was struck by how hardline Paul is, particularly in the early letters, on the issues that hardliners still stick to today, and also on the question of justification by faith; but there is a significant counterbalance from some of the later letters, especially 1 Peter which seems to be a direct response in some ways. (And the Epistle of Jude seems strangely familiar after 2 Peter ch 2...)

Finally, Revelation is the most Old Testament-y of the New Testament books. (There is nothing like the letters in the Old Testament, and the gospels and Acts are quite different in style from the OT historical books.) Again, Revelation is an attempt to express in words that which cannot be expressed in words; it is clearly not meant to be taken literally, but as one person's attempt to concretise the underlying truths.

I've used this atlas many times as a Social Studies teacher and it is a good resource for introducing geography. The multiple thematic maps provide a basis for skill building. I'd like to see more thematic maps included regarding social issues such as poverty, life span, etc.

Thumb indexes provide easy access to the quarter of a million entries. The illustation credits cites the Library of Congress in the Ready Reference section in the back of the book pages. The front of the work includes Pronunciations along with detail on how to use the dictionary.

An individual entry begins with the word, pronunciation, part of speach, core sense and subsenses separated by a ■ (block symbol). Some entries will have:
verb inflections, variant spelling, plural spelling
cross reference entry - another term for
encyclopidic information, or additional information or technical information
Phrases in bold with typical use in italics
Derivatives
Origin
homonyms
label - subject, currency, typical form, grammatical information
Alternative names - see also

Restoring the text of long-gone Hellenistic Greek autographs is difficult, and compounded where literal translation is involved. The task is complicated by variant texts which continue to be discovered. Thus, "There is not at the present time any critical text which would command the same degree of general acceptance as the Revisers' text did in its day." [vii]

Awesome update. I recall when we had to LOBBY to include in the dictionaries words like vegan, tofu, tempeh, and soyfoods.

Lexicography is an art that is constantly being refined. Taking all working elements from previous editions, the editors of the latest Oxford American Dictionary more than adequately fill the needs of professional writers and average readers. Comparing smaller size editions, in the new version one will see "usage boxes" below the standard definitions for many entries that guide users to recognize the subtleties of the English language. The extensive pronunciation key helps to distinguish American regional dialects from international English "voices." If readers prefer margin indenting to simple block listing for definitions, then this edition fulfills the requirement. However, when compared to the American Heritage Dictionary (Deluxe 4th edition), the New Oxford falls short. Noticeably the printed entries are smaller than in the American Heritage. Appearing with color print, the American Heritage has a greater advantage as main terms are set apart from other text. Further in the American Heritage, more examples of sentences used in context are listed. If readers also enjoy having more color illustrations, then the American Heritage will fulfill this desire. Yet for those wanting a scaled-down version for academic writing without an "encyclopedic" flare, then the New Oxford American Dictionary is the logical choice.

An important, scholarly appraisal of the New English Bible

As expected, very up to date, authoritative and complete. I would have prefer a less topographical mapface, as as the cities in the more mountainous regions were very hard to pick out (see Switerland, Colorado, Yemen, etc.).

Still,the only Atlas updated every year. (and, whatever happened to Rand McNally's World Atlas??).

Still a useful reference, though now old and superseded by the new Oxford DNB

Oxford Reading Tree

This is as close to definitive in its coverage as one could expect any reasonably-sized book to me. The main difference in its organization from Bartlett's is that it is strictly alphabetical, not chronological. Both have their points, though practically it probably doesn't make that much difference, since users are usually going to begin with the quotation.