Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

This work is an achievement of historic proportion and importance for the study and comprehension of Yiddish and its continued relevance as a language in the 21st century. Based on the decades-long lexical research of the late Mordkhe Schaechter, this dictionary embodies both historic terms and recently coined and often-used expressions and neologisms, helping to ensure that Yiddish can remain a lively, dynamic vehicle of communication. With about 50,000 entries and 33,000 subentries, this is the largest English-Yiddish dictionary ever published. Moreover, unlike previous dictionaries that tended to privilege the vocabulary, usage, and pronunciation of the northeastern or Litvish dialect, this new dictionary recognizes and emphasizes the multiple regional dialects of Yiddish. Physically, it is well bound, printed on sturdy paper, and has easily legible entries that include many colorful and creative yet authentic renderings of the most varied English words. The editors are to be congratulated on the care and quality of their work in compiling and editing what will be the standard English-Yiddish dictionary for decades to come.Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.

Basically a history of Western reference books organized as a reference book, these 23 chapters explore 50 works chosen for their importance and influence. In rough chronological order, starting with Hammurabi's Code (c. 1754 BCE) and ending at Wikipedia, English professor Lynch (Rutgers Univ.) guides readers through some exemplary attempts to impose order and access in the inundating seas of information. Students with bad memories of other reference guides will be surprised at this eminently readable book's intelligibility and may have a hard time putting it down. Because Lynch approaches his material with a lust, interest, and skill that is infectious, this may well be the only example of its genre to find a place on bedside reading tables. Part of the appeal (aside from its generous 16 pages of color plates) is due to the grace of the prose, but much credit also rests on Lynch's ability to put subjects in their context. All of his examples are successful because--more than academic exercises--they meet a larger societal need to tame the increasing complexity of people's worlds. This work will be welcomed in the academy and by librarians everywhere, and it is a must for all institutions supporting history of the book programs and reader studies.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All libraries. All readers.