Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 8th edition, edited by Joanna Turnbull, Oxford University Press, 2010.
The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, or OALD, is a favourite among teachers and students because it defines words in language that students understand, gives useful example sentences, and includes the help learners need to expand their vocabulary to over 7,500 words.
It has sold over 35 million copies worldwide and is the world's best-selling advanced learner's dictionary. The new 8th edition also contains Oxford iWriter, an interactive tutor to improve writing skills which guides students through the stages of planning, writing and reviewing a range of different written tasks. There are models for each task type, showing structure, notes and sample content. There is also advice on choosing the right language, how to use language in order to sound more formal, more objective, or to avoid repetition.
Oxford Word Skills – Advanced. Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Each level of Oxford Word Skills enables students to see how the words are used in spoken and written English, practise using the vocabulary, revise what they have learned, study at home or in class, learn the words as preparation for major exams, and use the 'test yourself' card to check which words and phrases they know and which ones need more practice. Each level includes, apart from the book, the Super-Skills CD-ROM, which helps students to learn how to say the words, practise listening to the words and using them, and consolidate what they have learned in the Student's Book with linked interactive exercises.
Casanova. Ian Kelly. Hodder & Stoughton, 2008.
This biography, praised by reviewers around the world, holds the title of the Sunday Times Biography of the Year and tells the story of Giacomo Casanova: one of the most beguiling and controversial individuals of his or any age. He made and lost fortunes, founded two state lotteries, wrote various plays, philosophical and mathematical treatises, opera libretti, poetry, and forty-two books. Now, in Casanova, Ian Kelly reveals previously unpublished documents by Casanova himself, as well as his friends and lovers, which give new insights into his life and his world. From his devotion to the Kaballah to his collaboration with Mozart on his opera Don Giovanni, from his vast appetite for food and sex to his training for priesthood, this is the fascinating story of an icon of his age – and ours.
The Google Story. David A. Vise. Macmillan, 2005.
The Google Story is the definitive account of one of the most remarkable organisations of our time. Every day over 64 million people use Google in more than one hundred languages, running billions of searches for information on everything and anything. Through the creative use of cutting-edge technology and a series of groundbreaking business ideas, Google's 35-year old founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have in 10 years taken Google from being just another internet start-up to a company with a market value of over $80 billion. Based on research and extraordinary access to the inner workings of Google, this book takes you inside the creation and growth of a company that has become so familiar its name is used as a verb around the world.
Hrady – Castles. Peter Chromek, Daniel Kollár. Dajama, 2009.
This bilingual book, part of the Flying over Slovakia series, focuses on Slovak castles and castle ruins. All pictures in the book are based on photographs taken from a plane by Peter Chromek and they present the most important Slovak castles to a wide range of readers. The photos provide unusual views of the more or less well-known castles and ruins. The reader can see very well not only how they look and their geographical position but also perceive the marvellous symbiosis of the castles with their landscape environment. The photographs and texts are grouped in three chapters: From the Danube to the Tatras, East of the Tatras and From Muráň to Nitra.
This column is a selection by The Slovak Spectator of English-language books recently released in Slovakia; it does not represent an endorsement of any of the books selected. The column is prepared in cooperation with the Oxford Bookshop Bratislava, located at Laurinská 9.
