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Do you want to know how a book was received by scholars? Are you trying to determine the quality of a particular book? Or, are you just interested in knowing if a book is worth reading? Book reviews are a great place to start. This guide provides guidance on finding two types of book reviews, those for a general audience and those for a scholarly audience.
Reviews for a General Audience
Literature and popular works (memoirs, travel writing, manuals, etc.) are often reviewed by journalists or fellow authors upon publication in newspapers or magazines. Use the following databases to find reviews in these publications.
- Book Review Index This link opens in a new window & more less... A comprehensive online guide to book reviews with over five million review citations from thousands of publications.
- Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window & more less... Book Review Digest is a reference database that provides review excerpts and book summaries for current English-language fiction and non-fiction books. Limit of 1 simultaneous user.
- Book Review Digest Retrospective This link opens in a new window 1903-1982 & more less... Indexes and abstracts reviews of English language adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction titles. Reviews are selected from journals in the humanities, sciences, social sciences and library review media.
Other Sources for Book Reviews
Many reviews are published in newspapers and magazines. Use the guides below to find the best databases to search for reviews in these publications.
- How do I find magazines? by Ask a Librarian Updated Jul 29, 2024 760 views this year
- How do I find newspapers? by Ask a Librarian Updated Sep 9, 2024 12018 views this year
Reviews for a Scholarly Audience
Scholarly books are reviewed in academic or peer-reviewed journals and are written by academics. As these reviews place the work in the context of current scholarship, they can take several years to appear after the book was published.
Starting Points
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Recommended Starting Point . Use Advanced Search and limit to "Reviews". You can also limit by discipline. & more less... A database of back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. All issues of each journal are included in full-text except for the most recent 2-to-5 years.
- IBR Online This link opens in a new window & more less... Multilingual and interdisciplinary index to book reviews, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window Conduct your search for book or author, and then limit to "Book Reviews". & more less... Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 10,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 110,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage available to 1900. Includes the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Web of Science is especially useful for its citation linking.
- Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window & more less... Part of Nineteenth Century Index. Indexes the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences from 1665 to 1995, including many European titles. Includes links to some full-text articles. Dates of full-text coverage vary by title.
- Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window & more less... Database corresponds to International Index, 1907 - March 1965; Social Sciences & Humanities Index, April 1965 March 1974; Humanities Index, April 1974 March 1984; and Social Sciences Index, April 1974 March 1983
Other Databases for Book Reviews
We strongly recommend searching the article database or index that covers the academic literature in a specific field for reviews. Use the Advanced Search option and limit to "Book Reviews" or "Reviews". Find the best database for book reviews in your field by using our subject guides.
- Library Subject Guides
Book Review Indexes in Print
Below are a few print sources for finding book reviews.
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 & more less... 10 vols. Ed by Evan Ira Farber. Woodbridge: Research Publications, 1982-1984. Covers 150 literature, philosophy, classics, folklore, linguistics & music journals, from England and the US Organized by primary authors or editors and then by book titles.
- Literary and Historical index to American Magazines, 1800-1850 & more less... Ed by Daniel A. Wells & Jonathan Daniel Wells. Westport: Praeger, 2004.
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Publications with Book Reviews
- London Review of Books Library has on microfilm 1979 - present.
- New York Review of Books This link opens in a new window & more less... New York Review of Books reviews contemporary books in all subject areas.
- New Yorker Library has in print 1925 - present.
- Publishers Weekly Library has in print and microfilm 1873 - present. Recent issues available online via Find It!
- TLS: Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window & more less... Covers 1902-2006. This easy-to-navigate, fully-searchable resource is a witness to the cultural revolutions of the last 100 years and offers unparalleled opportunities for tracking the views of influential opinion-makers, the response of their peers, the controversies of the day and how they developed. --Publisher's website
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- Updated: Jun 4, 2024 11:38 AM
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As France Burned
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Review by Paul Gray
- April 9, 2006
THIS stunning book contains two narratives, one fictional and the other a fragmentary, factual account of how the fiction came into being. "Suite Française" itself consists of two novellas portraying life in France from June 4, 1940, as German forces prepare to invade Paris, through July 1, 1941, when some of Hitler's occupying troops leave France to join the assault on the Soviet Union. At the end of the volume, a series of appendices and a biographical sketch provide, among other things, information about the author of the novellas. Born in Ukraine, Irène Némirovsky had lived in France since 1919 and had established herself in her adopted country's literary community, publishing nine novels and a biography of Chekhov. She composed "Suite Française" in the village of Issy-l'Evêque, where she, her husband and two young daughters had settled after fleeing Paris. On July 13, 1942, French policemen, enforcing the German race laws, arrested Némirovsky as "a stateless person of Jewish descent." She was transported to Auschwitz, where she died in the infirmary on Aug. 17.
The date of Némirovsky's death induces disbelief. It means, it can only mean, that she wrote the exquisitely shaped and balanced fiction of "Suite Française" almost contemporaneously with the events that inspired them, and everyone knows such a thing cannot be done. In his astute cultural history, "The Great War and Modern Memory," Paul Fussell describes the invariable progression — from the hastily reactive to the serenely reflective — of writings about catastrophes: "The significances belonging to fiction are attainable only as 'diary' or annals move toward the mode of memoir, for it is only the ex post facto view of an action that generates coherence or makes irony possible."
We can now see that Némirovsky achieved just such coherence and irony with an ex post facto view of, at most, a few months. In his defense, Fussell had not heard of "Suite Française," and neither had anyone else at the time, including Némirovsky's elder daughter, Denise, who saved the leatherbound notebook her mother had left behind but refused to read it, fearing it would simply renew old pains. (Her father, Michel Epstein, was sent to Auschwitz several months after her mother and was consigned immediately to the gas chamber.) Not until the late 1990's did Denise examine what her mother had written and discover, instead of a diary or journal, two complete novellas written in a microscopic hand, evidently to save scarce paper. Denise abandoned her plan to give the notebook to a French institute preserving personal documents from the war years and instead sent it to a publisher. "Suite Française" appeared in France in 2004 and became a best seller.
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the back story of "Suite Française" is irrelevant to the true business of criticism. But most readers don't view books from such Olympian heights, and neither, for that matter, do most critics. If they did, publishers' lists wouldn't be so crowded with literary histories and biographies, those chronicles of messy facts from which enduring art sometimes springs. In truth, "Suite Française" can stand up to the most rigorous and objective analysis, while a knowledge of its history heightens the wonder and awe of reading it. If that's a crime, let's just plead guilty and forge ahead.
"Storm in June," the first novella of "Suite Française," opens as German artillery thunders on the outskirts of Paris and those residents who have trouble sleeping in the unusually warm weather hear the sound of an air-raid siren: "To them it began as a long breath, like air being forced into a deep sigh. It wasn't long before its wailing filled the sky." (Thomas Pynchon also hadn't heard of "Suite Française" while he was writing "Gravity's Rainbow," but compare his opening sentence, set in London, a few years later, same war: "A screaming comes across the sky.") The bombardment resumes: "A shell was fired, now so close to Paris that from the top of every monument birds rose into the sky. Great black birds, rarely seen at other times, stretched out their pink-tinged wings." With the utmost narrative economy, sharp, scattered images coalesce into an atmosphere of dread.
Parisians wake up to the realization that nothing, particularly the gallant French Army they have read and heard so much about, stands between them and the Germans, and they decide, as one, to get out fast. To depict the widespread chaos that ensues — railroads hobbled by overcrowding or bombed tracks, shortages of gasoline and food — Némirovsky concentrates on a few individuals caught up in the collective panic.
While her husband, a government-appointed museum official, remains behind, Charlotte Péricand mobilizes four of her five children (her eldest son, Philippe, is a Roman Catholic priest), her senile father-in law and a retinue of servants into an escape party, burdened by as many possessions as she can salvage from her haut-bourgeois household. Gabriel Corte, a rich, successful and egotistical writer, views the loss of Paris as an insult to his refined sensibilities. On the road, stalled in the choking traffic, he complains to his mistress, "If events as painful as defeat and mass exodus cannot be dignified with some sort of nobility, some grandeur, then they shouldn't happen at all!" As usual, Némirovsky offers no comment on this burst of folly; she allows her characters the liberty to display themselves on their own, for better and worse.
Maurice and Jeanne Michaud, a middle-aged couple, both work in a bank that is moving its operations to Tours. Suitcases in hand, the Michauds learn from their employer at the last instant that the space he has promised them in his car, helping to transport bank records, has been pre-empted by his mistress and her dog. "Both of you must be in Tours the day after tomorrow at the latest," he tells them. "I must have all my staff." The Michauds laugh as they watch his car disappear; they expect little from life and so are rarely disappointed.
Finding the Paris train stations shut down, the Michauds set off on foot: "In spite of the exhaustion, the hunger, the fear, Maurice Michaud was not really unhappy. He had a unique way of thinking: he didn't consider himself that important; in his own eyes, he was not that rare and irreplaceable creature most people imagine when they think about themselves." The Michauds are moral beacons among the rampaging selfishness all around them. Their only concern is their son, Jean-Marie, a soldier whose unit is in the path of the advancing German Army. A few chapters later, it is a relief for readers to learn what the Michauds have not: Jean-Marie, wounded in a bombardment, is recuperating in a farmhouse near Vendôme.
"Storm in June" is a tour de force of narrative distillation, using a handful of people to represent a multitude. Némirovsky's shifts in tone and pace, sensitively rendered in Sandra Smith's graceful translation, are mesmerizing. There are lighthearted moments — one entire chapter is seen from the point of view of the Péricands' cat — followed by eruptions of terror, as when German planes strafe a mass of evacuees: "When the firing stopped, deep furrows were left in the crowd, like wheat after a storm when the fallen stems form close, deep trenches." And it all ends as the facts ordained. News of the armistice — that is, the French surrender — is greeted by the beleaguered homeless as an answered prayer. Survivors straggle back to Paris, where an occupying enemy and a harsh winter await them.
"Dolce," the second novella, displays none of the tumults of its predecessor. It is bucolic, becalmed. The French people have lost the outward war, and the battle has shifted to the inner arena of their consciences and souls. The Germans, who seemed as spectral as invading space aliens in "Storm in June," now appear in person. A garrison of Wehrmacht troops is billeted in the village of Bussy. The local men of fighting age are all gone, either dead or prisoners of war; only old people, women and children remain, and they greet the conquerors with sullen apprehension. Conditioned by years of propaganda to fear the bestial, rapacious Huns, the villagers aren't prepared for these actual soldiers, some barely older than boys. The intruders smile, behave deferentially to their helpless hosts and give candy to the children. Yearning for a return to normalcy and the familiar rhythms of their lives, the people of Bussy grudgingly adapt to the new reality.
Lucile Angellier lives with her widowed mother-in-law in Bussy's most elegant house. She doesn't regret the absence of her loutish, philandering husband, Gaston, who is in a German prison camp, although she hides her feelings from his mother, who regards him as a saint. Bruno von Falk, a German officer, has been assigned to live in the house. Lucile tries to treat the intruder with the same icy disdain displayed by her mother-in-law, but she finds herself warming to him in spite of herself. He is handsome, he plays the piano beautifully — he tells her he had hoped to be a musician before his military obligations intervened — and he has read Balzac. Night after night, Lucile grows more sensitive to Bruno's presence in the next-door bedroom, to the sounds of his pacing and to the ensuing silences suggesting his sleep.
Némirovsky deftly establishes the terms of this melodrama and its inevitable question — where will the attraction between Lucile and Bruno lead? — and then adds a dissonant note of reality. A local farmer has killed a German officer, and the fugitive's wife, who happens to be one of the women who nursed Jean-Marie Michaud back to health in "Storm in June," asks Lucile to hide her husband in the spacious Angellier house, which should be above suspicion because of its German boarder. The terms of the inevitable question alter significantly. Will Lucile choose love or honor?
"Dolce" predates by nearly 30 years the explosive confessions of wartime collaboration in Marcel Ophuls's documentary "The Sorrow and the Pity," which French television declined to broadcast in 1970, even though it had partly paid for the project. Némirovsky recorded the best and worst of those times while living in them. Her novella ends as the occupying troops leave Bussy on their mission to Moscow: "Soon the road was empty. All that remained of the German regiment was a little cloud of dust."
But Némirovsky had more plans for "Suite Française," as an appendix to this volume makes clear. In her notebook, she sketched the possibility of a work in five parts. "Storm in June" and "Dolce" were to be followed by: "3. Captivity; 4. Battles?; 5. Peace?" The question marks punctuate Némirovsky's peculiar problem; she was trying to write a historical novel while the outcome of that history remained unknown. The fourth and fifth parts of the book "are in limbo," she observed, "and what limbo! It's really in the lap of the gods since it depends on what happens."
We now know what happened. Némirovsky lost her life in what she foresaw as "Captivity." The improbable survival of her two novellas is a cause for celebration and also for grief at another reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. She wrote what may be the first work of fiction about what we now call World War II. She also wrote, for all to read at last, some of the greatest, most humane and incisive fiction that conflict has produced.
SUITE FRANCAISE
By Irène Némirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith
Alfred A. Knopf. 401 pages. $25.
Paul Gray is a regular contributor to the Book Review.
16 Best Books For Learning French
By: Author David Issokson
Posted on Published: March 3, 2022 - Last updated: July 2, 2024
Today I got the idea of showing you my actual collection of books for learning French. I’ve been teaching since 2014 and have a massive colleciton. When somebody asks me where to start I always suggest the Complete French All-in-One book. The post also has a lot of dialogue books, which I use quite heavily in my lessons. Browse through the list and find a new title for your collection!
What are the best books for learning French?
The top-5 best books for learning French are: 1) Practice Makes Perfect Complete French All-In-One , 2) The Ultimate French Review and Practice , 3) Grammaire en Dialogues – Niveau Grand Débutant , 4) Vocabulaire en Dialogues A1-A2 and 5) Exercises in French Phonics .
This article will discuss why I’ve selected these titles and recommend them to my students. I also provide an honest opinion about the French All-in-One For Dummies book, Amazon’s No. 1 book for learning French. Keep reading!
Books for learning French recommended by a French teacher
Over the years beginner students have repeatedly asked me which books I recommend.
While I’ve bought and tried many textbooks, I seem to always recommend the same books. The books I’m suggesting on this list are the actual books I use for my online classes.
French For Dummies All-In-One: Is it worth it?
Before we take a look at the books that are really my favorite for learning French, I want to address the book: French All-in-One For Dummies . With over 1,200 reviews on Amazon, this is the website’s No. 1 book for learning French. But, is it really worth buying?
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In short, I’d say YES if you’re looking for a reading companion to your other books. The French For Dummies All-in-One is six books in one.
Books one and two provide a huge introduction to basic vocabulary ( all covered here on Frenchlearner by the way ), combined with lots of practical dialogues. While I strongly suggest students to master the reading rules, the book provides lots of English phonetics for all the words and dialogues.
This is a huge plus for people who are too lazy to buckle down and learn the reading rules .
Books three, four and five cover both grammar and verbs (this site offers a ton of free material on French grammar and verbs , by the way).
Here’s my opinion: While these chapters offer a nice introduction, I feel strong that the Practice Make Perfect: Complete French All-in-One (NOT to be confused with the For Dummies book!) offers a way better presentation of French grammar and verbs.
In addition, this For Dummies books doesn’t provide any exercises while the other book (see below) offers countless exercises. The For Dummies book does offer some games at the back but that’s no substitute for real exercises.
The French For Dummies All-in-One book does include a CD. I popped it in and had a listen. It does indeed include some audio for dialogues in both French and French-Canadian accents.
That said, there’s not much to the CD and really just offers a quick glimpse into spoken French. There’s much more material available for free on YouTube .
Best books for learning French for beginner students
I put these two books at the top of my list is because I believe they offer the best introduction for building a rock-solid foundation in French verbs and grammar. These are the necessary elements for speaking fluently .
1) Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French All-in-One
I consider Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French All-in-One by Annie Heminway to be the Bible for all beginner and intermediate French students.
The reason I like this book is that it lays out French grammar in a very methodical and logical way. My private lessons follow the outline of the book.
I like this book because you can use it for the very initial stages of learning French and continue to use it when you become more advanced.
The book is called All-in-One because it’s actually seven books. In addition to grammar, the book covers verb conjugations, vocabulary and conversation and written French. It really is a Bible of sorts for the French learner!
The publisher, McGraw Hill, is a world leader in educational material and their books are solid. This book is also excellent for self-study as it provides lots of exercises in each chapter.
2) Ultimate French Review and Practice
This second title, The Ultimate French Review and Practice by David Stillman and Ronni Gordon, is an excellent companion to the Complete French All-in-One. Ultimate French is also a publication of McGraw Hill.
While both of these books cover the same areas (grammar, verb conjugations, etc.), Ultimate French’s explanations are slightly more nuanced.
In addition, the book offers many exercises for each chapter which are excellent for self-study between lessons.
While the previously mentioned Complete French All-in-One does not offer audio support, Ultimate French comes with an interactive CD-ROM with audio.
Interestingly, the No. 1 book on Amazon for learning French is Easy French Step-by-Step by Myrna Bell Rochester. This is also a McGraw Hill publication and is more of an entry-level book the Ultimate French.
I’ve tried to use Easy French Step-by-Step with a few students and don’t like it. I didn’t feel that the layout of the book was logical and lacked comprehensiveness.
While the Complete French All-in-One and Ultimate French books are more advanced, while used with a teacher they are surely better purchases than the Step-by-Step book.
That said, the Step-by-Step could be a good quick introduction to French for a pure beginner who doesn’t want to work with a teacher.
3) Grammaire en Dialogues – Niveau Grand Débutant
The third title on my list is: Grammaire en Dialogues – Niveau Grand Débutant by Odile Grand-Clément. I like this book because it does a great job matching pertinent, real-life dialogues to basic French grammar. Each dialogue is followed by brief explanations as well as exercises.
I feel that this is not a good self-study book and is best used with a teacher. This is because the explanations are very brief and are not in French.
While the book does come with a CD for listening to the dialogues, the speed of the speech tends to be quite fast.
I feel that a solid dialogue book very important for any online lesson. It allows the student to practice speaking and repeating after the teacher.
Actually, this title is published by CLE International , which is a leading publisher in books for helping students to prepare for the French DELF & DALF exams . These are the French government’s French competency exams.
CLE International has a very extensive line of French dialogue books. The books cover areas including verb conjugations, grammar and vocabulary.
Two other books which I recommend along with the previously mentioned dialogue books are: Grammaire en Dialogues A1-B2 and Communication Progressive du Français A2-B1 , both by Claire Miquel.
Claire Miquel is a leading writer for CLE International and her dialogue books are excellent. I suggest the A1-B2 dialogue book for a beginner student who might already have some French under their belt.
Of all the books I’ve used over the years, I’ve used Communication Progressive A2-B1 with the most students and it’s a great book to use after the initial Debut or A1-B2 Grammaire en Dialogues books.
4) Vocabulaire en Dialogues A1-A2
The next book on the list is: Vocabulaire en Dialogues by Évelyn Siréjols. This is another dialogue book published by CLE International.
I like the book because it lays out chapter-by-chapter a very useful resource for leaning the most essential and basic French vocabulary .
The chapters are broken down into categories such as food, clothing, sports, shopping, weather, etc. A beginners French course would not be complete without going over these lists of words.
Again, I feel that this book is best used with a teacher because the explanations are in French. It does provide lots of exercises and comes with an CD for audio.
5) Exercises in French Phonics
The last book on my list is called Exercises in French Phonics by Francis W. Nachtmann of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlaign.
This is a thin 80-page, $8 book that’s truly a hidden gem! One of the single hardest aspects to learning French is mastering the pronunciation and reading rules.
Dr. Nachtmann meticulously breaks down all the French phonetic rules into concise chapters. Each chapter covers a single spelling pattern, such as confusing nasal sound, and provides a long list of the corresponding words along with exercises.
The book puts a heavy emphasis on the French phonetic symbols. While these may seem daunting at first, Dr. Nachmann’s book is so methodical, by the end you’ll be an expert in French pronunciation.
This book was first suggested to me by a student in 2020. While I was skeptical at first, I have since used it with many students who’d been struggling with French pronunciation.
All that that said, Exercises in French Phonics is NOT a self-study book and is best used with teacher. Furthermore, the book does not come with a CD.
Best textbook for learning and teaching French
If you look on Amazon, you’ll see that there are many textbooks for both learning and teaching French, such as Bon Voyage! and Bien Dit! Of all the books, I prefer the Discovering French series by Valette Valette.
Written by Jean-Paul Valette and Rebecca M. Valette and published by McDougal Littel, these were used by my high school French teacher and I continue to use them today.
There are three books in the series: Discovering French Bleu (beginners), Discovering French Blanc (intermediate) and Discovering French Rouge (advanced).
The Discovering French Bleu is very good for a pure beginner, especially for slower learners. The information is presented in a very gradual manner and the pace is not intense.
All lessons include a fun reading as well as useful exercises. The book has a good balance of both grammar and verb lessons as well as vocabulary lessons.
The intermediate and advanced books are not only excellent developing stronger skills in vocabulary and verbs, but offer excellent readings.
They offer both short magazine articles as well short stories. What’s specially great about the short stories is that they do a great job reviewing the previously learned grammar lessons.
The Discovering French textbooks have been a staple of mine in my online lessons since 2013 and that will not change anytime soon.
More Advanced French Dialogue Books
Over the years I’ve amassed an impressive collection of French dialogue book published by CLE International, the company that does preparation material for the French DELF & DALF exams .
Communication Progressive du Francais A2-B1
Of all the books for learning French in my collection, Communication Progressive Du Français A2-B1 by Claire Miquel is the one I’ve used most with students.
CPD A2-B1 is a dialogue book with each lesson focusing on a specific grammar area, such as the reflexive verbs or object pronouns. The book covers many aspects of daily life such making purchases, socializing and much more.
Each lesson contains one longer dialogue or two shorter dialogues. At the bottom of each lesson you’ll find a very brief section covering grammar, vocabulary and expressions used into the dialogues. The page following the dialogues contains exercises and drills.
Note that this book is definitely not for a pure beginner and the student should have at least a year under his or her belt. In addition, there is no English in the book so it’s best used with either a teacher or dictionary.
Communication En Dialogues A2-B1
Communication En Dialogues A2-B1 by Evelyne Sirejols is another one of my favorite intermediate dialogue books. While this dialogue book and the previous book are the same level (A2-B1), this book is slightly more advanced.
Each lesson contains a one-page dialogue. What’s great about the dialogues is that they do an excellent job reviewing intermediate-level grammar. In fact, this would be a very good book to use after going through the Complete French All-In-One book .
Below each dialogue you’ll find several true-and-false questions. The pages that follow contain lists of related phrases organized by formal and informal categories.
These sections of the book are extremely rich in useful daily vocabulary. They are written wonderfully and very well thought out. In fact, I’ve never seen any other book that’s this comprehensive in teaching phrase lists.
The book comes with a CD so you may listen to audio recordings of the dialogues.
Best Books For Practicing Reading French
Many of my students are constantly asking me for reading options. I find that practicing reading aloud is a wonderful way to master the pronunciation and rhythm of the French language. I recommend the following two books for reading practice.
Read & Think French (McGraw-Hill)
Read & Think French is by far my favorite resource for practicing reading French. The book is definitely aimed at mid-intermediate or higher students.
The book consists of more than 100 articles which help students to better understand live in France and in the French-speaking world. The articles were provided by the editors of Think French magazine.
The books sections include culture, travel, traditions, celebrations, biographies, customs, art, history, geography and cuisine.
The publisher does a wonderful job providing translations to vocabulary in the margin. In addition, the translations are perfectly done to fit into context of the text.
All of the stories are available in audio format on McGraw-Hill’s website, mhlanguagelab.com .
Easy French Reader (McGraw-Hill)
The Easy French Reader by R. De Roussy de Sales is a wonderful resource for upper-beginner students who are looking for a reading option.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section consists of dialogues between Marc and Julie, two fictional characters.
The second section offers articles on French historical figures (King and Queens). The final section offers samples of writing from France’s biggest authors including Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant.
Similar to the previous book, McGraw-Hill offers audio recordings of all the text in the book on its website, mhlanguagelab.com . Students can listen and review the stories before an after lessons.
My main criticism of this book is that what some of the material is perfect for a beginner, a lot of the material is much too difficult.
In addition, the publisher could have done a better job providing translations of more vocabulary words in the margin.
Best book for learning French verbs
Generally, I am not a big fan of books solely focused on learning verbs. This is because they offer lists of hundreds (too many!) of verbs and this can cause the student to feel overwhelmed and want to give up.
Barron’s 501 French Verbs
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That said, I do suggest owning Barron’s 501 French Verbs by Christopher Kendris, Ph. D, and Theordore Kendris, Ph. D. Off all the French verb books, Barron’s is by far the most comprehensive.
The book does offer an “Essential 55 verb list”. These are the top-55 most commonly used French verbs . The advantage here is that the student can focus on the most useful verbs and not waste time on useless and rarely used verbs.
For each verb you can find the conjugations in all the major French verb tenses . In addition, for each verb the book provides several example sentences, related verbs (verb conjugated using the same patterns) as related words and expressions.
Best books for learning French slang and expressions
Learning a language and only learning formal grammar and standard vocabulary can be extremely boring. In reality, language is full of cultural idioms and slang words and expressions.
I’ve kept the following two books in my arsenal of French learning materials for many years.
Collins Easy Learning French Idioms
The Collins Easy Learning French Idioms is by far the most comprehensive book for French expressions and idioms on the market today.
The book teaches hundreds of idiomatic expressions covered in categories including love and romance, money, health, craziness, and much more.
Each page consists of one idiom with both a literal translation and real meaning translation. The expressions are followed by example sentences in French with English translations.
If you want to impress the French with your knowledge of idioms used in daily life, this is surely the book for you.
Dictionary of French Slang and Colloquial Expressions
The Dictionary of French Slang and Colloquial Expressions is an excellent resource for learning French slang. In addition to terms and expressions that are slightly informal, this book provides slang words that border on being outright vulgar and impolite.
The book is in alphabetical order with the words listed in French. Next to each French word you’ll find the English translation as well as one or two example sentences in French with an English translation.
I feel strongly that this book is best used for personal entertainment and learning and is not very useful for a class or classroom setting. Furthermore, its content is definitely targeted at an adult audience.
Best French phrase books for travel
If you’re planning a trip to France and just want to learn some useful phrase for the trip, it would be a good idea to get a French phrase book. I have the following two books in my collection and would recommend both of them.
Berlitz Phrase Book & Dictionary French
Believe it or not, I actually like Berlitz Phrase Book & Dictionary French better than the Lonely Planet phrase book (see below). This is simply because the Berlitz book offers much more extensive vocabulary lists.
Personally, I’d suggest the Berlitz book for somebody who already has some French under their belt. The sheer quantity words in the book could be a bit overwhelming for a pure beginner.
The book is broken down into all the usual sections you’d expect in a phrase book: Arrival at the airport, hotel check-in, restaurant, eating, shopping, sightseeing, etc.
Within the eating out section, for example, you can find very extensive vocabulary lists for every word you could ever need in a restaurant.
For example, in addition to phrases for ordering a meal, the book lists out specific kinds of meats, vegetables, etc.
The back of the book has a useful reference section (covering the numbers) as well as an English-to-French dictionary.
Lonely Planet French Phrasebook & Dictionary
As suggested, if you don’t have any French under your belt, the Lonely Planet French Phrasebook & Dictionary would probably be a very good option.
The key difference between the Berlitz phrase book is that it doesn’t offer the extensive vocabulary lists while still offering all the essentials.
The Lonely Planet phrase book is divided into all the usual sections you’d expect to find in a phrase books: Finding a hotel room and checking in, restaurant phrases for ordering a meal, phrases for socializing, etc.
One feature of the Lonely Planet phrase book which I find to be extremely useful is the Menu Decoder. In a nutshell, it’s a glossary of French food terms from French to English.
This is probably the most comprehensive and informative list of French food terms I’ve ever come across.
One last note – the overall layout and font of the Lonely Planet phrase book is a but more user-friendly than the Berlitz book. In the event of having to pull the book out to look something up quickly, the Lonely Planet phrase book might be your better option.
Best books for learning French vocabulary
One of secrets to language mastery is the constant accumulation of new vocabulary words . In the initial stages of learning it’s a good idea to have a book on hand to learning the categories of major words ( family members , colors , numbers , telling time , weather , clothing , sports , etc.).
Practice Make Perfect French Vocabulary
For my private lessons, I am a big fan of the publisher McGraw-Hill. For vocabulary, I suggest their book, Practice Make Perfect French Vocabulary by Eliane Kurbegov.
Please note that the French All-In-One book (mentioned at the very top of this post) has a vocabulary chapter covering almost all the material included in this vocabulary-specific book.
Sections of this book include categories of common nouns (people, animals and nature, shopping, leisure, etc.), common adjectives, verb and adverbs.
For each section you’ll find a vocabulary list as well as useful related verbs and phrases. The vocabulary lists are also followed by exercises including translations, finding the missing word and matching columns.
McGraw-Hill’s online resource page has a free to use flashcards page which corresponds with the chapters of this book.
The Vocabulary Builder Workbook
Another French vocabulary book worth mentioning is: The Vocabulary Builder Workbook: Simple Lessons and Activities to Teach Yourself Over 1,400 Must-Know by Chris Lele.
While I haven’t used this book for my private online lessons, I’m including it on this page as it has over 4,000 reviews on Amazon.
Lele’s book offers over 200 lessons on French vocabulary. The lessons or chapters are based on traditional word categories (animals, food, etc.).
In addition, Lele’s book offers many chapters covering group of words based on prefixes and word roots. I believe these chapters would be very fun and useful for upper-intermediate to advanced learners.
Books for learning French | Posts by David Issokson
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David Issokson
David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.
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Dictionnaires de langue en ligne
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WordReference English- French Dictionary © 2024:
Discussions du forum dont le titre comprend le(s) mot(s) "review" :
Dans d'autres langues : espagnol | italien | portugais | roumain | allemand | néerlandais | suédois | russe | polonais | tchèque | grec | turc | chinois | japonais | coréen | arabe
review translation | English-French dictionary review board , book review , judicial review , peer review
Sign up to add your entryTraduction review | Dictionnaire Anglais-Françaisreview board , book review , judicial review , peer review
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droit d'auteur, notamment la citation d'un passage, la rédaction. [...] de l a critique d'un livre ou la créati on d'une. [...] parodie. america.gov. america.gov. T he book review numb er will be found on the letter that accompanied the book as well as on one of the first pages of the book. ccja-acjp.ca.
droit d'auteur, notamment la citation d'un passage, la rédaction. [...] de l a critique d'un livre ou la créati on d'une. [...] parodie. america.gov. america.gov. T he book review numb er will be found on the letter that accompanied the book as well as on one of the first pages of the book. ccja-acjp.ca.
Reviews for a General Audience. Literature and popular works (memoirs, travel writing, manuals, etc.) are often reviewed by journalists or fellow authors upon publication in newspapers or magazines. Use the following databases to find reviews in these publications. Book Review Index.
Traduction de "book review" en français. Tell students to write the book review in the first person. Dites aux élèves d'écrire la critique de livre à la première personne. It was just a book review. Ce n'était qu'une critique de livre. The maximum length of a book review is 12,000 characters, including footnotes and spaces.
Anglais. Français. book review n. (critique of a book) critique littéraire nf. Alexandra writes the book reviews for a national newspaper. Alexandra écrit des critiques littéraires pour un journal national.
I've not quite worked my way up to this level but a few of my french friends have recommended that I try to read things like: Elle et lui - marc levy (lit) Les exploits d'un jeune don Juan - guillaume apollinaire (romaine érotique) Le petit Nicolas - René Goscinny (children's) Bonjour tristesse - François Sagan (lit) Generally anything by Collette, Marguerite Duras, Zola, Sarte, du Beauvoir ...
English French Exemples contextuels de "book review" en Français . Ces phrases proviennent de sources externes et peuvent ne pas être tout à fait correctes. bab.la décline toute responsabilité vis-à-vis de leurs contenus.
Tell students to write the book review in the first person.: Dites aux élèves d'écrire la critique de livre à la première personne.: It was just a book review.: Ce n'était qu'une critique de livre.: The maximum length of a book review is 12,000 characters, including footnotes and spaces.: La longueur maximum d'un compte rendu est de 12000 signes.: It is impossible to do justice to this ...
n. vt. n. Tell students to write the book review in the first person. Dites aux élèves d'écrire la critique de livre à la première personne. It was just a book review. Ce n'était qu'une critique de livre. The maximum length of a book review is 12,000 characters, including footnotes and spaces.
Traduction de "book-review" en français. book review. Book Review critique de livre compte rendu revue de livre critique littéraire. book. livre réserver Book ouvrage carnet. review. examen examiner révision revue réexamen. For the afternoon session beginning at 2:00 p.m.,
Detailed Translations for book review from English to French. book review: book review [the ~] noun. the book review (review; criticism; critique; analysis) - a critical review of a book (usually a recently published book) 1. la rescension; le compte-rendu; la critique littéraire; la critique.
French Translation of "BOOK REVIEW" | The official Collins English-French Dictionary online. Over 100,000 French translations of English words and phrases. TRANSLATOR
SUITE FRANCAISE By Irène Némirovsky Translated by Sandra Smith Alfred A. Knopf. 401 pages. $25. Paul Gray is a regular contributor to the Book Review. Share full article.
The top-5 best books for learning French are: 1) Practice Makes Perfect Complete French All-In-One, 2) The Ultimate French Review and Practice, 3) Grammaire en Dialogues - Niveau Grand Débutant, 4) Vocabulaire en Dialogues A1-A2 and 5) Exercises in French Phonics. This article will discuss why I've selected these titles and recommend them ...
Traduction de "a book review" en français. une critique de livre. une critique littéraire. une revue de livre. un compte rendu de livre. It was just a book review. Ce n'était qu'une critique de livre. This can be invaluable when writing a piece that focuses intently on one source, such as a book review. Cela peut être inestimable lorsque ...
Translation for 'book review' in the free English-French dictionary and many other French translations. ... book review = fr. volume_up. critique. ... critique; revue de libre; volume_up. book reviewer [example] FR. volume_up. chroniqueur littéraire; Translations. EN book review {noun} volume_up. book review (also: crit, critical, criticism ...
review [sth] vtr. (re-examine) revoir ⇒, réexaminer ⇒ vtr. Let me review what happened to see if we can do anything about it. Laissez-moi revoir (or: réexaminer) ce qui s'est passé pour voir si on peut faire quelque chose. review [sth] vtr. US (revise lessons) (Scolaire) réviser ⇒ vtr.
review. n. [+situation, policy, case, contract, salary, system] révision f. → A stringent review of public expenditure began immediately ... → That policy was due for review this year. to be under review être en passe d'être révisé (e) → The present arrangements are under review. to come under review être révisé (e)
Translation of "book review" in French. Tell students to write the book review in the first person. Dites aux élèves d'écrire la critique de livre à la première personne. It was just a book review. Ce n'était qu'une critique de livre. The maximum length of a book review is 12,000 characters, including footnotes and spaces.
traduction review dans le dictionnaire Anglais - Français de Reverso, voir aussi 'review board, book review, judicial review, peer review', conjugaison, expressions idiomatiques
REVIEW - traduire en français avec le dictionnaire Anglais-Français - Cambridge Dictionary.