101 French Proverbs

Book Description

101 French Proverbs is a delightful introduction to the colorful and insightful proverbs that French speakers use every day. The 101 proverbs are grouped according to useful themes such as animals, occupations, dining, daily life, people, and others.

Customer Reviews:

Fills in the Blanks.......2007-01-13

For people learning French or advanced French speakers, this book gives cultural insight so we can better understand French culture and not be left in the dark when proverbs are used. Very useful.

Very helpful and interesting as well.......2004-12-07

I ordered this book to further my reading skills of French material.It did.Perfectly. I am an intermediate self-taught French language student,and this little book helped out quite a bit,plus it was fun to read.Can't get any better than that.
I recommend it to anyone who loves the French language.You will learn a lot here.And,while reading the proverbs in French,you will discover that you know a lot more words than you thought you did,which was a nice discovery for me.I liked this book a lot,and I think you might,as well!

French Fun.......2004-03-29

101 French Proverbs was recommended to me by my French teacher--a woman born and raised in France. The books trade paperback format devotes a full page to each proverb and provides a clever cartoon and a little story in French, some in the form of a dialogue, to further illustrate the proverb's meaning.
All proverbs are grouped in the following categories: Our Animal Friends---proverbs containing similes likening human behavior to that of domestic animals, Animals in the Wild----human behavior likened to non-domestic animals, Occupations---Behaviors attributed to certain occupations, Eating in Style --- proverbs where food positively and negatively reflects life, Life Day by Day---axioms to make daily life livable, People --- of the "too many cooks spoil the broth" genre, The Blue Planet --- proverbs involving a natural setting, Time Flies --- common sense sayings revolving around duration and time of day and Words to Live By --- A catch-all category for those proverbs that defy categorization. At the end of the volume, each of the 101 illustrative stories and dialogues are translated in English. At the tail end, the proverbs are listed alphabetically in French with corresponding page numbers.

This book is simply great--its a lot of fun, and can be used almost like a calendar where one page is read and savored a day. The use of idioms is extensive and can be used to further anyone's study of everyday French.

Recommended to all students of French who want to interject a little fun into their grammar and vocabulary memorization.

Depends what you want..........2004-03-13

I thought that this would be an amusing way to work on my French now that I live and have a job in Paris. I enjoy reading through this book, and learning about the proverbs. However, I brought it with me one day to show my French co-workers and they were amazed. They had heard of less than 10% of the proverbs in the book. So... if you want to find a pleasant way to enrich your knowledge of French trivia and culture, then buy this book. But if you are looking for a way to better communicate in French, this probably isn't for you.

Very interesting, not only for learning language.......2003-02-16

I completely agree to the former reviewer, including reasons why he recommend it, so I add only some points.

The word-for-word translation, for example - "there's more than one donkey called Martin in the market place" - is very useful for beginners to increase whose vocabulary. Its cartoon will help it.

And I think maybe you can enjoy this book not only for learning French language.
Indeed, I found an interesting fact - some French proverbs are very close to OUR JAPANESE/ASIAN proverbs in detail, rather than to English ones. For example, what you shouldn't do at once is "to chase two hares" both in France and Japan, and every jar does find a lid in France, so does every pot in Japan.
I don't know if sometime someone introduced them or it's only a coincidence, but there're something make me touched, the fact different peoples have same manner of thinking. So it seems there're more common points than differences, as it's said.
I thank the authors for they made me find it.

Book Description

Key topics start with colonial writers and cover three centuries of American prose and poetry, including present-day trends and influences. Designed to be compatible with virtually every standard textbook in their subject field, Barron's EZ-101 Study Keys give you a valuable overview of your college-level course. Classroom-style notes emphasize important facts, remind you what you need to remember for term papers and exams, and help guide you through the complexities of lectures and textbooks.

Customer Reviews:

Great Handbook for home educators........2005-10-17

This make a great handbook or reference book for home educators. It is written with the authors in Historical/Literary Time periods in chronological order. Each key is an introduction to the author with examples of the author's works. I highly recommend it.

101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History

Average customer rating:

Excellent Take on Biblical origins
There are Better Books on the Bible
informative
What Neighboring Nations Had to Say
Explore the bibles mythical roots

101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History
Gary Greenberg
Manufacturer: Sourcebooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1570718423

Book Description

This riveting and controversial book reveals how the ancient editors of the Bible used the myths and legends of neighboring cultures to build the foundation of the monotheistic religions of today.

101 Myths of the Bible exposes the contradictions imbedded in many of the tales and events in the Old Testament, exploring the story behind the story to determine what really happened. Author Gary Greenberg draws on arguments endorsed by most biblical scholars, and provides new insights into questions that have puzzled the academic community for years.

101 Myths of the Bible presents remarkable truths about widely-held beliefs, including:
*King David's bodyguard, not David, killed Goliath
*Noah's Ark did not land on mount Ararat
*Samson did not pull down a Philistine temple
*There are at least two versions of the Ten Commandments

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Take on Biblical origins.......2007-08-11

Most of us have wondered at some point in our lives, "Who wrote the stories in the Bible and where did they come from?" Obviously no one was around to interview Adam, Eve, Noah, Moses or King David, what they did much less what they said or thought. Divine inspiration is the only "explanation" and even then there are some serious problems in regard to historical reality. The bigger question is "WHY" these books came into being in the first place. The Bible is obviously a collection of ancient works that the authors (or editors) edited into a seemingly seamless unity. This facade was cracked upon applying scientific methods (linguistics, archaeology, historical writings, etc and the underlying stories were at last revealed.

The flood is a good example. The same story was found on ruins of at least three different civlizations, replete with an ark, animals and the rain. Obviously this story had universal appeal. The author notes that many tales in the Torah come in pairs that contradict one another - Ten Commandments, Creation, flood, heroic deeds. One version uses "Yahweh" while the other uses "Elohim" indicating dual sources for the stories. The author is not attempting to point out Biblical "myths" such as a man living in a fish for several days or rain covering the Earth or the sun "standing still" or a donkey talking. Instead, it's about discovering the underlying myth behind the various stories in the Torah and he suggests they come from the Egyptians where the Israelites lived for so long.

The tone is respectful as the author calmly shows that behind all the great stories is an original cultural myth originating usually in Egypt and given a Hebrew twist. The first Creation story is a jewel of explication: Egyptians held that four male gods and four female gods created the Earth. These represented earth, wind, light and water - exactly what is mentioned in the opening verses. The structure is simple - after an introduction as to the various myths (some are from Persia, others from Babylon or Assyria) the 101 myths are listed. The Biblical version and the "real" (underlying mythical) version. Differences and similarities are discussed and the evidence varied from conclusive to sketchy. Over all, an excellect work for the layman.

There are Better Books on the Bible.......2007-07-05

The book attempts to trace the roots of 101 bible stories from the Old Testament to the Babylonian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian or Sumerian mythology. Unfortunately there is not a great deal of specific dating of material when drawing comparisons. The Hebrews are not referenced as a source for any of the stories, rather are cited as being the editors of them. The author does not address the potentially larger issues at play with the common motifs in various cultures, thus the book became rather stale as I made my way through it.

informative.......2007-03-01

more informative issues of religion.. everyone should read these books. its about time the small minded wake up

What Neighboring Nations Had to Say.......2007-01-19

In his introduction to _101 Myths_, Greenberg begins by explaining the Documentary Hypothesis and noting that it is just "one important way" to look at the origins of the Bible. J, E, P, and D were the scribes who wrote much of the Bible, and they were scribes who had to take into account what neighboring nations to Israel had to say about times and places also mentioned in the Bible. This idea came to the forefront of biblical studies on Dec 3, 1872, when Assyriologist George Smith presented an account of the Genesis flood stories that were written in Akkadian, a language older than Hebrew. Here was a flood story written from a polytheistic rather than monotheistic point of view. Greenberg ponders whether such parallel stories corroborate the biblical accounts.

Many people believe that the Bible was inspired. But there are many "footnotes" in the Bible such as the Book of Jasher (found at Joshua 10.13 and 2 Samuel 1.18), the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel(found at 1 Kings 14.19 and nine other locations), and many more. Greenberg notes that we have not found any of these source materials so we can not evaluate the reliability of the citations. Some sources are known by citation within the Bible. Greenberg goes on to say that the myths and legends know from other ancient Near East cultures may be added to this list. Were such myths falsehoods? No, whether one believed in one god or many, "one could still believe that the underlying act occurred."

Genesis 1-11 offers an insight as to how the Bible evolved. J and P presented accounts of events which originally developed from separate Egyptian traditions. J's roots go back to Heliopolis. Jacob's son Joseph was married to the daughter of the chief priest of Heliopolis. P adopted the theology of Thebes. Israel learned the Egyptian creation stories while in Egypt and produced a new theology. After moving to Canaan, Israel was exposed to new traditions from Babylon. Out of respect for Babylonian wisdom, the Hebrews were forced to refine their earlier ideas even though those ideas had become divorced from their Egyptian originals.

So Greenberg's first myth is that in the beginning the earth was without form and void. In reality, says Greenberg, Genesis uses the Hermopolitan creation scheme. The four Egyptian male deities have been removed from the Genesis story but their characteristics have been retained in unformed space, darkness on the face of the waters, the Deep, and a wind that hovered over the Deep. So myth #28 is that the serpent was more subtle than any beast. In reality, Genesis modeled the clever serpent upon the Egyptian god Set who took a serpent form and was the enemy of Re. So myth #96 is that David killed Goliath. In reality, Elhanan killed Goliath. Elhanan was one of the "30," King David's elite guard.

Greenberg's book is both enticing and provocative, but quickly moves from subjects to conclusions without even the benefit of footnotes. There are a few pages on suggested reading at the end of the book, but these are standard references such as the _Anchor Bible Dictionary_ and _Mythologies of the Ancient World_. We may be able to check Greenberg's sources but we can not check his methodology.

Explore the bibles mythical roots.......2006-08-18

This book is a very easy read, it takes 101 old testament stories and examines the stories roots in ancient Egyptian and Pagan myths, in many instances making great points like in the story of the sun standing still so Israel could defeat its enemies really was the ancient symbol of their enemies Sun God. This book clarified a lot of the archaic stories of the old testament for me and made them understandable through mythical symbolism and that they were corruptions of more ancient myths.

101 American Superstitions : Understanding Language and Culture through Superstitions

Average customer rating:

Don't waste your lucky penny on this book
101 Superstitions!
101 Superstitions!
This book was phat. Kev said it was da bomb.
alrighty then

101 American Superstitions : Understanding Language and Culture through Superstitions
Harry Collis
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0844255998

Book Description

This humorous and informative compendium gives the origin and an example of each of 101 familiar superstitions.

Customer Reviews:

Don't waste your lucky penny on this book.......2004-09-20

Although witty and amusing, this book fails to accomplish the purpose of its subtitle: "Understanding Language and Culture through Superstitions." Half of these superstitions I have never even heard of so I'm not sure how they help other to better understand the English language and American culture.

Furthermore, some of the "superstitions" are actually English idioms rather than superstitious activities such as getting out of bed on the wrong side which is also included in 101 American English Idioms. Still others are examples of cultural "wisdom sayings."

This book is perhaps the weakest in its series in terms of providing help with the American culture and language.

101 Superstitions!.......1999-11-17

Here's a delightful collection of American superstitions, wonderfully illustrated with whimsical cartoons. 101 American Superstitions will amuse you for hours - while giving insight into American customs, beliefs, and humor. Each superstition is accompanied by an explanation and then is used in a real-life context - either in a dialogue or in a narrative - to show how these beliefs and behaviors fit into everyday life. This lively text offers nonnative speakers of English a wealth of linguistic and cultural information - while native speakers of English will enjoy seeing these principles of folk wisdom illustrated with wit and whimsy.

101 Superstitions!.......1999-11-17

Here's a delighfful collection of American superstitions, wonderfully illustrated with whimsical cartoons. 101 American Superstitions will amuse you for hours - while giving insight into American customs, beliefs, and humor. Each superstition is accompanied by an explanation and then is used in a real-life context - either in a dialogue or in a narrative - to show how these beliefs and behaviors fit into everyday life. This lively text offers nonnative speakers of English a wealth of linguistic and cultural information - while native speakers of English will enjoy seeing these principles of folk wisdom illustrated with wit and whimsy.

This book was phat. Kev said it was da bomb........1999-09-29

This book was good. it touched me in spots I've never been touched before. Beautiful and magnificent.

alrighty then.......1999-03-11

I love the understanding which I gained about my own language and culture

St. Patrick's Secrets: 101 Little-Known Truths and Tales of Ireland

Average customer rating:

excellent

St. Patrick's Secrets: 101 Little-Known Truths and Tales of Ireland
Helen Walsh Folsom
Manufacturer: Hippocrene Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ah, Those Irish Colleens: Heroic Women of Ireland

ASIN: 0781808987

Customer Reviews:

excellent.......2002-03-15

I THOUGHT THIS BOOK WAS REALLY GREAT IN REFERNCE TO IRELAND, ALL THE MYTHS AND FACTS THAT I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT. AND I'M IRISH!

Average customer rating:

A wonderfully fun romp through that strange world of College
A bit simple
Excellent!

Mythology 101 (Questar Fantasy)
Jody Lynn Nye
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0445210214

Customer Reviews:

A wonderfully fun romp through that strange world of College.......2006-08-20

MYTHOLOGY 101 manages to capture more than a bit of its elven protagonists' magic and capture it in the pages. You can't go wrong with Little Folk secretly tutoring students in the library stacks. The people are nicely drawn, with everyone from the main characters to the briefest of "walk-on" parts coming across as three-dimensional. Can't wait to find the rest of the series.

A bit simple.......2001-12-18

While I do agree with the previous reviewer that this book is fun and a great light read, I found it a bit simplistic. If simple is what you want, then this book deserves the five star rating it received before me.

However, I found the simplicity unsatisfying. None of the characters were deeply motivated. By this, I mean that they had motivations that were believable, but just... well, simple. I can't escape that word. It is the only adjective that fits.

The other main complaint I have is that it took a bit too much set up to get to the payoff. The main characer (I've forgotten his name...) takes too long to become accepted by the elves, and I was getting ready to drop the book and forget about the whole thing.

However, I am glad that I stuck with it. It was fun, it was light. It didn't change the world, and it surely didn't make a lasting impression on me. But it was enjoyable. If that's all you are looking for, then give this book a try.

Excellent!.......2000-06-08

There's really no other way to put it: This book is just plain fun. I should have been so lucky as to have had such experiences when I was at University. Elves, magic, librarians, bullies, and an irrepressiblly good-natured college student make for an highly enjoyable romp through might-have-been. (Or perhaps "might-be" if there's any justice in the world.) There are at least two sequels in the 'Mythology' universe, 'Mythology Abroad,' and (I think) 'Higher Mythology.' I highly recommend this title, 'Mythology 101,' for light reading when you need something cheery and humourous.

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