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I just started teaching ESL about 8 months ago and I find Heyer's books absolutely invaluable. I use this book for my intermediates, and I use Heyer's "Easy True Stories," "Very Easy True Stories" and "True Stories in the News" for my various levels of beginners and low-intermediates. They are cute stories, the vocab is manageable and the exercises that follow are very helpful.

Sandra Heyer's books are a fine mixture of story-telling, expository reading, and follow-up exercises covering specific reading skills. High school deaf students who were formerly reluctant readers are now eager to dig into each lesson. New immigrants are amazed by the "crazy stories." Two parents have requested where they may get copies so their students may review over the summer. The only place I know is amazon.com.

I am an English as a second language teacher in a small town in Turkey. The emphasis in learning English here is usually placed on grammer grammer and more grammer. However I believe that students also need to learn to speak and read effectively in order to know a language.

This book promotes "whole language" with its very interactive style. Each chapter begins with a black and white photo and questions to get the student thinking about the topic. Next is a two columned one page reading section. After the reading there are four pages of exercises including: Vocabulary, context, comprehension/reading skills, understanding details, discussion, and writing.

Students are not asked just to answer questions, but to really think about what they read and apply new vocabulary in a different context.

All my students love this book and constantly ask, "Is this really true?". Of course it is and that makes it that much better.

Eugene Tsui has added another gospel to his bible for evolutionary architecture. What can't be captured in merely addressing his architecture is the clarity, force and intelligence of his writing. In addition to being one of the few architects who can write coherently, Eugene Tsui has a unique, compelling presence felt throughout the book. When finished, I felt braced, urged on and encouraged in my own life pursuits. This book is worth every cent of its price, and is priceless for its spiritual value.

Eugen Tsui is a visionary who sees in the natural world forms and functions that can be used by man in his created environments to the benefit of mind, spirit, ecology and wallet. Innovative and unorthodox building methods and materials; making the most of the vast sea of unapplied knowledge overlooked by most architects is his specialty. Tsui ia a genius who is unlikely to be fully appreciated by his own era. In this book Tsui explains his ideology and presents visuals to stun the mind out of its "stick-built" suburban tract house rut.

This book is a must have for anyone interested in reinventing their view of how humans can build and design. Includes a detailed analysis of Eugene Tsui's Philosophy of studying nature to help us architect our environments and housing. Showing many re-world examples in nature where animals and creatures create amazingly responsive architecture. The book then takes these principles and shows how this can be translated into helping architects become more innovative both aesthetically and technically. Eugene trancends the typical and primarily aesthetic ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and other "Organic Architects" showing how nature can help guide us to build more ecologically advanced architecture that is more responsive to the new millinium.

Conceived in 1985 by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the New York Public Library as a series of six lectures by noted biographers, Extraordinary Lives was tidied up for publication by William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, a first-rate how-to book for writers. Fortunately, Zinsser also included parts of the question-and-answer sessions that followed the lectures. As he notes, these exchanges frequently sent "the speakers off on flights of anecdote and memory." Although the subjects of the biographies are themselves extraordinary, the editor and the biographers are exceptional craftsmen as well. (For that matter, the biographers Robert Caro and David McCullough are probably more historically significant than Alice James, one of the subjects.) This is a book meant for reading rather than for study--which among other things means that it's fun to read but has no index. Nevertheless, the book does have a fascinating annotated bibliography, compiled by the biographers, which includes comments on both biographies and books about writing them. I'm embarrassed to say that I ran into Extraordinary Lives by accident a few months ago while browsing the aisles of my public library. This fine book should be better known.

This book, based on a series of talks given at the New York Library, biographers Robert Caro, David McCullough, Paul C. Nagel, Richard B. Sewall, Ronald Steel and Jean Strouse explain how and why they went about writing biographies in the way that they did.

Each biographer explains well how the life of the biographer becomes intertwined with that of the person they are researching. In each case, they stress that biography writing is both intense and time-consuming.

Lyndon B. Johnson biographer, Robert Caro, recommends Francis Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe" for two reasons. One, to show that the job of the historian is to try to write at the same level as the greatest novelists. Second, that the duty of the historian is to go to the locales of the events that will be described, and not to leave, no matter how long it takes...until the writer has done his or her best to understand the locales and their cultures and their people.

In the end, it means that the biographer must not only understand the person, but also needs to intimately know the area where the person grew up and lived.

This book gives its readers new insights into the lives of some of this nation's most prominent figures, through the eyes of six well-known biographers. In "The Unexpected Harry Truman," David McCullough shows the life of Truman through new eyes. McCullough stresses that a biographer must genuinely care about his [or her] subject because you are living with that person every single day. The process is like that of choosing a spouse or roommate, therefore, the subjects that he chooses must have a degree of animal, human vitality. In Truman, he said, as with Theodore Roosevelt, he found no shortage of vitality.

McCullough created a detailed chronology, almost a diary of what Truman was doing from year to year, even day to day if the events were important enough. He also used primary sources, such as personal diaries, letters and documents from the time period. Truman poured himself out on paper and provided a large, wonderfully written base of writing for McCullough to sort through and "find" the man.

McCullough says that the magic of writing comes from not knowing where you are headed, what you are going to wind up feeling and what you are going to decide.

Richard Sewell's "In Search of Emily Dickinson," research process took twenty years and he says, "In the beginning I didn't go searching for her, she went searching for me." The process took him two sabbaticals, years of correspondence and meetings with Mabel Loomis Todd's daughter Millicent Todd Bingham to uncover the whole truth.

Paul Nagel's "The Adams Women," gives readers a sense of how important the women in the Adam's family were. Nagel said that contemplating the development of ideology is good training for a biographer. After all, he said, the intellectual historian takes an idea and brings it to life. For Nagel, working with ideas establishes a bridge into the mind and life of the people who had the ideas he studies.

Nagel said that he likes and admires women and this is why, after writing about the Adams' men, he wrote about the Adams' women. Nagel also said that he has learned and taught his students that our grasp of history must always remain incomplete.

Ronald Steel said, that the hardest job a biographer has is not to judge his or her subject, however, most fail to keep their judgements out of the biography.

In Jean Strouse's, "The Real Reasons," she explains that the modern biography examines how character affects and is affected by social circumstance. Biography also tells the reader a great deal about history and gives them a wonderful story.

In writing about Alice James, Strouse found that there was not an interesting plot line to her life other than that her brothers were writers Henry and William James.

Strouse, when asked by another writer about the descendents of the three James' children, she said that William's great-grandson in Massachusetts, tired of being asked whether he was related to Henry or William, moved to Colorado where he was asked whether he was related to Jesse or Frank. Strouse reported that he stayed in Colorado.

Strouse realized that in order to tell the story of the James' family, she was going to have to use her own voice to give life to the family, especially Alice. This is not recommended for all biographies, but in a case such as hers, it needs that biographer's voice to connect all the information for the reader.

In Robert Caro's, "Lyndon Johnson and the Roots of Power," he talked to the people who knew Johnson to get a sense of the former President from Texas and what made him worthy of a new biography. He wrote the biography to illuminate readers to the time period and what shaped the time, especially politically.

This book will help writers understand the steps he or she will need to take to write a biography. It shows the difficult research processes and makes the reader want to either write a biography about an interesting person or never want to write again. Either way, this book provides new insights that one may have never thought about before. I recommend this book to both beginning and seasoned writers

This is a an excellent, informative book about the importance of food for a healthy body. Written by a doctor and kundalini yoga practitioner. Backed by legitimate research and self discovery. Delicious recipes in every chapter. This book is not just for yogis, but for anybody interested in a long, healthy life. NO scam diets. No false promises. Just the facts. The book will open your eyes to the importance of using food as medicine. Read and eat well!

This is a tremendously helpful book. The author is a physician who's also a believer in the spiritual aspects of health and nutrition. As a result, the book is as practical and grounded in science as you'd expect from an M.D., while providing an enlightened underpinning for what he teaches. Best of all, you can just look up what ails you, or what part of your physiological being could be improved, and find exactly which foods to eat to treat yourself well. Even if you don't buy the spiritual stuff, the nutritional advice is flawless and easy to use. This book goes on the shelf right next to Dr. Andrew Weil. I recommend it that highly.

Food as Medicine is a great book that will teach you the many healing properties of food, juices, vitamins and herbs. Its food logs, information on the dangers of genetically modified foods, recipes, and the entertaining and friendly writing style of Dr. Khalsa, makes this book a must not only in your library, but also in your kitchen. I love it. It is a very educational book. Did you know that if you buy conventional, non-organic, genetically modified foods, you are eating 8 pounds of pesticides each year?

This is an excelent book for all people all ages.Mrs.Whited I am so happy for you,and I hope that you continue to suceed with your writing and teaching.

Parents, students, future educators, and Christians should all grab a copy of this book. I thought it was a very insightful book into a world in which we tend to overlook. Very few people realize the impact that educators have on our children and the challenges that face them.

I was unable to put the book down. This book gives a new perspective on educators and the hard, thankless job they perform day in and day out. Now throw in the fact they are Christian educators with an even higher responsibility! Wow, you just have to read it to understand.

The 2 voices speak loud and clear.

You must own this book. It will open your eyes and change your heart.

I've owned a copy of this book for over 25 years, purchasing it in the early 1970's. As an owner of a Model A Ford, I wanted more information about the car and its history. This book has an amazing amount of information about the Model A and its birth, changes over the 4 year production run, and great original factory photographs and charts.

The thing that amazes me most about this book is that, even today after almost 30 years after its original publication, the accuracy of what the authors wrote when the book was first published is outstanding! These 3 fellows REALLY did their homework.

If you only own 1 book on the Model A Ford, I recommend this one.

Best Model A book around. Lots of photos and information not found anywhere else. Got a copy on loan from the library, and would buy a new copy to keep if it was still in print.

I need informatio

This invaluable study of the history of the text of the Gita is unfortunately out of print, but a must read for anyone interested in unraveling the enigmas of Indian spiritual history and wresting the gold from the illusions here. Attempting to show that the book we now have is a very late version from the period ca. 800 A.D. with a theistic cast not present in the original, the book also uncovers the connection with the Samkhya tradition, a very early form of which was probably part of Gautama's path. As if the text of the Iliad had fallen into Christian revisionism and made a document of spiritual monotheism, the Gita that we have is an eloquent but misleading series of confusing layers. The author also suggests certain interpolations in the text of the Yoga Sutras designed to make it seem compatible with the tide of monotheism sweeping India in the later medieval period.
Cf. also a work such as Gerald Larsen's Classical Samkhya, for the difficult history of this uniquely interesting yoga, and its tortuous history.

Sinha argues that the original Gita, which was based on the Samkhya and Yoga philosophies was much shorter (86 verses). The rest of the Gita are later interpolations done by a monists who wanted to further the interests of the priestly class (brahmins). The work is well researched and has many references. I am sure that the orthodox folks with a closed mind aren't going to like this book.

The title says theme of the book: The GITA as it was : Rediscovering the original Bhagvadgita. His basic motivation comes his analysis of indian social condition as he has pointed in his preface. The key argument is that there was an original gita of 84 verses written by Vyasa, which is consistent in basic theme with Kapila's Samkhya Darshan (700) and Patanjali's Yoga sutra (400 BC). The Bhagavagita of the modern form is , in his angle, intentionallys construted by Brahmins in the period of 800 AD. It borrowed themes of monothesim, hell, heaven, sin and salvation themes from Christanity and Islam. He projects that Shankaracharya is the key person in this reformulation. Given the fact many scholar both Indian and Western agree that mahabharata has through three evolution jaya, vijaya and mahabharata, the basis to look to look for similar evolution is reasonable. Earlier Khair, G.S. has identified three kala geeta based on the motivation and conceptual analysis of the content of Bhagadgita. Sinha's better approach is better since he looks for the original Samkhya Karika and yoga sutra, in which he has success. He draws evidence for his stand from Alberuni's discussion about Gita and a text of Gita of 80 verses found in Indonesia, written in Palm leaves in the Kavi (Balinese) language.

I bought this book for my class of Latin American students who were learning English as a second language. The grammar exercises in this book were well-written and accurate, and the organization of the material into short chapters makes it easy to teach this material in a classroom. This book was an excellent resource because it explains the concepts in Spanish, which makes the experience more familiar and less overwhelming for the students. A few words of advice - this material is somewhat advanced, so those who have never studied grammar formally (e.g., some of my students had quit school in their 8th grade) may struggle a little with some of the concepts (e.g., what is an adjective). Also, if you are an ESL teacher, you should also be able to read Spanish if you want to use this book, since it explains the concepts in Spanish. I enjoyed this book since it made teaching easy - I needed only about 15 min. of preparation time before each class when I was teaching one of these chapters. Finally, if you are teaching an ESL class, I recommend you use at least one additional book for the purpose of learning vocabulary and practicing pronunciation, since this book really only covers grammar.

I am very pleased with my purchase. I am trying to learn english. And my professor encouraged me to buy this book. She is a very nice teacher although a little too funny at times, but aren't all language teachers that way. This book provides all the grammar rules I need to know to write good sentences and to read well and yes sometimes soon to speak well in sentences to. Thank you.

Este libro te ayuda a entender la gramatica del lenguaje Ingles y te ayuda a poder hablarlo y escribirlo mejor. Is one of the best tools anyone can have when learning to speak or better english skills.

Imaginative, interesting, engaging and well organized this book is one of the most valuable resources I have seen in nearly three years of full time ESL teaching. The book is divided into two parts.Part One provides a clear and concise introduction to grammar teaching in the foreign language classroom, a very useful guide to designing and presenting grammar-practice activities and some tips for getting the most out of coursebook exercises. The heart of the book, however, is Part Two which consists of nearly 200 game-like grammar practice activities. The activities are grouped into sections according to grammatical categories. The categories are ordered alphabetically and cross-referenced in the text. The descriptions of the activities are accompanied, where appropriate, by reproducable sample texts and visuals. The activities are not classified by proficiency level or age and the author encourages teachers to adapt them to suit their own students. I have found that most of the activities are readily adaptable to different levels, and although most as presented in the book seem orientated toward adult students I have successfully adapted many for use with teenagers and younger children. Likewise the activities are not classified by skill practiced as many are designed or can be adapted to practise any or all of the four skills. This book is also exceptional in that it doesn't fall foul of that ill which inexplicably plagues many similar books - a cumbersome and unwieldy index. The index in this book, although perhaps not quite as complete as it could be, is among the very best I have seen in this type of publication. A single alphabetical list identifies activities by term, topic and title. In addition there is a clear list of contents at the front of the book. The book's easy-to-use format, comprehensive coverage, sturdy paperback construction and handy size make it an indispensable addition to any ESL teacher's tool-kit.

This book is packed full of useful grammar activities. They are easily classified according to grammar point and can be easily searched for use. I've used the activities numerous times, and there are a lot of great ideas in this book. The only thing that isn't so great is that the pictures have a late 70's or early 80's look, but it's not such a big problem since you can easily get pictures out of magazines or other such resources. Also, the English featured here is British English, so if you're teaching American English, you have to adjust some of the phrases or vocabulary. Other than that, it's great. Check it out.

I borrowed a copy from my ESL instructor while student-teaching. It is FANTASTIC. I have found that the activities proposed in the book can also be modified to fit another activity -- or to even get my own creative juices flowing. There have been times when I felt overwhelmed by all the good examples and couldn't pick just one. It's easy to carry and pack -- don't leave home without it!

John Kallas's memories of growing up as a Greek-American in Newark are vividly recollected and retold in his stories. Some are so funny that I read them aloud to my husband (who is not Greek-American) and we could not stop laughing. Others are very touching. I couldn't help wanting to know more of his experiences and more about his life. A terrific book for all Greek-Americans and likely for the American children of other immigrants as well.

John Kallas, son of Greek immigrants, is a master storyteller who fulfilled the American dream by becoming an engineer, professor and playwright, but valued his Greek heritage enough to write this endearing memoir. Any child or grandchild of immigrants can relate to these anecdotes about growing up in a multicultural household, with its often hilarious consequences. I love the story about the day little Johnny sat down to do his first homework, inspiring his father to realize that he himself could get a secondhand education by having his son teach him everything he learned in school at the end of each day; and the day he offered to sing the Greek National Anthem in Public School but soon forgot the words, and filled in the blanks with the Greek names for various vegetables and articles of clothing, ending with his underwear, while his teacher and classmates stood solemnly at attention; and the time the first telephone arrived in a Greek household in their Newark, NJ neighborhood, and all the children gathered around in great anticipation, waiting for this modern miracle to ring...and so many other wonderful, funny, touching stories. This is a delightful book well worth reading.

I love this book. It is funny, warm, and thoroughly loving. This author is a fabulous storyteller who brings us into the world of a child from a different culture who learns to adapt to his American childhood while keeping the best of his Greek ancestry. I wish he had written more stories....