The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur
by Daoud Hari
from Random House
I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me.
The young life of Daoud Hari–his friends call him David–has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. He is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur.
The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world–an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–while others around him were taking up arms–Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur.
Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, grew up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. As a child he saw colorful weddings, raced his camels across the desert, and played games in the moonlight after his work was done. In 2003, this traditional life was shattered when helicopter gunships appeared over Darfur’s villages, followed by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups attacking on horseback, raping and murdering citizens and burning villages. Ancient hatreds and greed for natural resources had collided, and the conflagration spread.
Though Hari’s village was attacked and destroyedhis family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped. Roaming the battlefield deserts on camels, he and a group of his friends helped survivors find food, water, and the way to safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life again and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was the punishment for those who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was captured. . . .
The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary
from Prentice Hall
This compact commentary concentrates n the cultural, historical, literary, and religious issues of th Scriptures an summarizes varied explanations of the Bible inuse in the community of Roman Catholic scholars.
Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America)
from Oxford University Press, USA
The unreliable narrator and the fictional memoir are long-standing literary traditions. Nineteenth-century Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis uses both to brilliant effect in his novel Dom Casmurro. Narrated by Bento Santiago, this memoir looks back over a life filled with the suspicion of betrayal: Bento is convinced that his wife had an affair with his best friend, and that his son was the result of it. Though he has no real evidence to support this belief, Bento becomes so obsessed with it that, in the end, he commits crimes far worse than the suspected adultery to avenge himself. The memoir itself is a kind of justification for his actions; Bento, now alone, recreates the environment of his childhood and attempts to rewrite the facts of his life--in essence, reconstructing the past.
Among readers familiar with Latin American literature, Machado is considered a master. His novels blend black comedy with deadly accurate social commentary and an unerring perception of human psychology to create works that are brilliant, complex without being opaque, and joys to read. The Oxford University Press edition is ably translated by John Gledson and accompanied by critical essays that will help orient readers unfamiliar with Machado's work.
Like other great nineteenth century novels--The Scarlet Letter, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary--Machado de Assis's Dom Casmurro explores the themes of marriage and adultery. But what distinguishes Machado's novel and what makes it such a delightful discovery for English-speaking readers, is its eccentric and wildly unpredictable narrative style. As he recounts the events of his life from the vantage of a lonely old age, the narrator Bento continually interrupts his story to reflect on the writing of it. But the novel is more than a performance of stylistic acrobatics. It is an ironic critique of Catholicism, in which God appears as a kind of divine accountant whose ledgers may be balanced in devious as well as pious ways. It is also a story about love and its obstacles, about deception and self-deception, and about the failure of memory to make life's beginning fit neatly into its end.
This crisp new translation by John Gledson is the only complete, unabridged, and annotated edition available of one of the most distinctive novels of the turn of the century.
Kanji Pict-o-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics (Zzz)
by Michael Rowley
from Stone Bridge Press
How does one learn kanji, the characters of written Japanese? The traditional approach is rote memorization. Japanese children write each kanji hundreds of times at their desks, and eventually they are acquired. Michael Rowley offers a different way, a mnemonic-association approach that provides a hook on which to hang the meaning and retrieve it easily when the kanji comes into view. The concept is simple: each character is represented under the word or concept it stands for (such as turf, bamboo, eat, or duty), followed by the pronunciations of the word in Chinese and Japanese, and a drawing that captures the meaning and resembles the character enough so that it'll come to mind whenever the kanji is seen.
Organized thematically in chapters such as "Power," "Places," "Tools," "The World," "Food," "People," and "The Body," Rowley's book lets you learn the root symbols before teaching the words that add to them for further meanings. For example, the character for water is a splatter of three dashes that Rowley pictures as three splashing water drops. Later, you see that steam, float, boil, dirt, and bathe all build on the water character. For steam, there's the water character plus a series of lines that Rowley exaggerates to resemble swirling, vapory tendrils, and the association helps. Building on units of memory and relationship, recall is aided considerably by the simple yet evocative drawings. Rowley even manages to help with the hiragana and katakana syllabaries, providing appealing pictures that look a bit like the letters in question and begin with the same sounds. So the na letter looks like a knot, nu resembles Rowley's drawing of noodles held by chopsticks, and it's easier to remember which symbol means te when you picture a telephone pole.
It's hard to do Rowley's book justice with words, since the visual element is what makes it tick. He does a wonderful job, blending insight, imagination, and drawing technique, in a book that far surpasses the old rote method, making kanji learning both appealing and accessible. --Stephanie Gold
"Kanji Pict-o-Graphix offers an engaging way to learn and memorize Kanji."-Rocky Mountain Region Japan Project
"A fun book for studying kanji. The illustration reveals more of its contents and method than any description ever could."-Japan Times
"It is a very nice book, simple and pretty effective. A useful addition to the library of all beginners who aspire to learn Japanese. Recommended."-Protoculture Addicts
Learn more about kanji from Stone Bridge Press: KanaPict-o-Graphix, Designing with Kanji,Kanji Starter 1&2, and Crazy for Kanji
Lonely Planet Farsi (Persian) Phrasebook
by Yavar Dehghani
from Lonely Planet
We'll hike up the masir e kuh and drop in at the local
In This Guide:
Clear pronunciation guide for the scrupulous speaker.
Action-packed vocabulary for outdoor devotees.
Classical Persian poetry for that inspirational moment.
Savouries and sweets to summon up a feast.
Language tips for getting the perfect bargain.
Comprehensive two-way dictionary.
Manual of Standard Tibetan
by Nicolas Tournadre
from Snow Lion Publications
The Manual, which consists of forty-one lessons, is illustrated with many drawings and photographs, and also includes two informative political and linguistic maps of Tibet. Two CDs provide an essential oral complement to the Manual. A detailed introduction presents a linguistic overview of spoken and written Tibetan.
Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life
by A. A. Long
from Oxford University Press, USA
The philosophy of Epictetus, a freed slave in the Roman Empire, has been profoundly influential on Western thought: it offers not only stimulating ideas but practical guidance in living one's life. A. A. Long, a leading scholar of later ancient philosophy, gives the definitive presentation of the thought of Epictetus for a broad readership. Long's fresh and vivid translations of a selection of the best of Epictetus' discourses show that his ideas are as valuable and striking today as they were amost two thousand years ago.
This is a book for anyone interested in what we can learn from ancient philosophy about how to live our lives.
Schaum's Outline of Spanish Grammar (4th edition)
by Conrad J. Schmitt
from McGraw-Hill
Students can master Spanish grammar with this high-performance study guide. This book will help them cut study time, hone speaking and writing skills, and achieve their personal best on exams. Features quick drills for reinforcing grammar, verb charts, hundreds of exercises with carefully explained solutions, and thousands of practice test exercises with answers. Now updated to include the latest Latin American vernacular. Excellent for school and for travel.
How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions
by Gordon D. Fee
from Zondervan
A book on Bible translation from a premier biblical scholar.
Spanish for Gringos, Level 2 with Audio CDs
by William C. Harvey M.S.
from Barron's Educational Series
The new second edition of Spanish for Gringos, Level 2, has been expanded to include more commonly used Spanish words and phrases than were presented in the first edition. Also, a significant number of exercises and answer keys have been added. The book and two enclosed compact discs, is a follow-up program recommended for those who have completed Spanish for Gringos, Level 1. ItÂ’s a quick, informal, and easy way to learn the fundamentals of conversational Spanish without having to memorize tedious rules of grammar and parts of speech. Both levels 1 and 2 of Spanish for Gringos are designed to help English-speakers who are in regular contact with Hispanics and need to speak with them and understand them in the workplace as well as in social situations. The enclosed pair of CDs relate to the bookÂ’s contents and demonstrate correct Spanish pronunciation.
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