Yesterday I finished reading...

Heartland #6
un jour tu comprendras

Time to "cull the herd"... Today's donation to the local public library's used book sale is

Between a Rock and a Hard Place
by Aron Ralston

(An abridged audio version read by the author)


http://www.amazon.com/Between-Rock-Hard-Place-Ralston/dp/B007CRV9TU/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421497955&sr=1-3-fkmr3&keywords=audio+book+aron+ralston&pebp=1421497980210&peasin=B007CRV9TU


Unlike a paper book, I did not write on the last page to note the date I finished reading (listening to) this book.

I remember enjoying listening to this audiobook, but it was not one I felt compelled to read more than once.

Teaching Smart People How To Learn

On December 17, 2014...

Read

“Teaching Smart People How To Learn”

by Chris Argyris

and additional commentary online

http://pds8.egloos.com/pds/200805/20/87/chris_argyris_learning.pdf

Ordinary Heroes

Just finished reading...


Ordinary Heroes
by Scott Turow


http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Heroes-Novel-Scott-Turow/dp/0374184216/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1420681399&sr=1-1

Riding Freedom

On December 30, 2014....
Finished reading


Riding Freedom
by Pam Munoz Ryan (Author), Brian Selznick (Illustrator)

http://www.amazon.com/Riding-Freedom-Pam-Munoz-Ryan/dp/0439087961/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420681002&sr=1-1&keywords=riding+freedom

"The largest part of every man's education is that which he gives himself. It is for this individual, self-administered education that the public library furnishes the opportunity and the means. The schools start education in childhood; libraries carry it on."

from Chapter III
What does a public library do for a community?

A Library Primer

by John Cotton Dana




http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15327/15327-h/15327-h.htm
 

Aspiring polyglot

When Eric was a baby, my oldest sister was studying German. Eric and I learned to say, "Nudelsuppe ist sehr gut!" (Noodle soup is very good!)

Years later, my youngest sister (meine Schwester) was studying German. By this time the oldest had long exited her German phase. I found the aural only approach of the Pimsleur German course an excellent introduction. It taught me to say fluently, "Ich verstehe nur ein bisschen Deutsch." (I understand only a little bit of German.)

I am again dabbling in German. The internet offers tremendous learning opportunities for aspiring polyglots. My current favorite is an online audio German language course for beginners called Radio D.

Unlike Pimsleur, Radio D also includes the script of the lessons, so I am now also learning to read German as I learn to understand more of it. For an avid reader, learning to connect the sounds of a language with their written representations constitutes an important part of the language learning process.  At some point with Pimsleur, I began craving to read  the conversations on paper that I could understand by hearing them.  Radio D fills that need by helping me to advance while at the same time helping me to learn to read the language.

Radio D lessons can be found at:

http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/rod/enindex.htm


Whenever someone asks my recommendation for a self-study language learning course, my first choice for beginners is always Pimsleur.   HEARING and LISTENING to the language first, without seeing the words, is an important part of learning.  My three years of French study in high school and follow up years of French courses in college left me dependent upon reading to understand what was being said.

At the Lycee Franco-Americain International School, I was placed in an immersion environment in which people do not hold up cue cards or subtitles for me to read as I listen to their words.  This immersion has created more growth in my French language learning than all the years of studying in high school, college, and community school classes combined.  For beginners, Pimsleur offers a simulated immersion environment, not a "listen and repeat like a parrot and try not to fall asleep from the boredom" method. 

To understand why THE PIMSLEUR METHOD™ is different, go to

http://www.pimsleur.com/The-Pimsleur-Method


P.S.  My all-time favorite book on learning languages is Barry Farber's "How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own"

http://www.amazon.com/How-Learn-Any-Language-Inexpensively/dp/0806512717

Women Pilots of the 1940's

In researching D-Day for an upcoming event at the Lycee Franco-Americain International School, the subject of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was brought to my attention by Wings Over Miami Air Museum.



Just finished reading

Those Wonderful Women in Their Flying Machines
The unknown heroines of World War II

by Sally Van Wagenen Keil


A preview of the book can be found on Amazon:


http://www.amazon.com/Those-Wonderful-Women-Flying-Machines/dp/0962765902

The author is the niece of a WASP B-17 pilot. In the Author's Note she writes,


In the summer of 1973, my aunt died. The only memorabilia she had saved from fifty-five years of life were photographs from her flying years, her graduation certificate from Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, in 1943, and a WASP roster.

I realized then how little she had talked about the WASP experience that had been so important to her. Did she avoid the subject? Had we never asked? Determined to learn what I could no longer ask her, I took her roster and went in search of the WASPs.....

* * *

Here is the book's description from the book jacket:

From 1942 to 1944, almost two thousand women pilots left their civilian lives as students, movie stuntwomen, secretaries, blackjack dealers, teachers and wives with husbands overseas to converge on Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas. There at the only all-female cadet air base in history they slopped into ill-fitting men's GI flying suits and marched into the "Army Way" of life. Six months later, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were sent out to fly every airplane in America's air arsenal, from the colossal B-29 Superfortress to the lightning-fast P-51 Mustang fighter.


These unsung heroines flew some of the World War II's most harrowing — and surprising — missions, many which men refused to perform. "If there was a doubt in anyone's mind that women can become skillful pilots," said the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, "the WASPs have dispelled that doubt." But not before they were forced to fight for advanced training and assignments in bigger airplanes, subjected to unnecessary physicals, even jailed, for being what they were — the most adventurous women of the war era, who knew what they wanted and went for it.

Over seventy of these air heroines were killed or injured, flying for their country.

Sally Keil tells the romantic story of America's entry into the Air Age. She recreates the era of barnstormers, biplanes and record-breaking air-races, when our century was just awakening to the awesome potential of the airplane and America's new role as a world power.

It was an era widely exuberant in its idolization of the heroes and heroines of the air — Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Jacqueline Cochran, and others whose stories are told here. Certain young women with vision determined to be part of it all. These women became the WASP.

The book also gives a splendid history of World War II, the greatest mobilization of capabilities America has ever known — and the world's first air war, fought with the aid of these special women, who, along with their brothers, emerged from small-town obscurity to become the pilot elite of the war.

Inspiring, startling, at times hilarious and deeply moving, the WASP story, finally told after the decades, belongs to today.

* * *

Reading is as important to the mind as water for the body.

Finished reading "Flying Higher: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II" by Wanda Langley

Interesting "About the Author" on the back flap:
Wanda Langley was born not far from Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas where the WASPs trained.  She grew up hearing stories about these audacious women pilots and knew she would write about them one day...

Finished reading "Great Women in Aviation #1 - Women Airforce Service Pilots - WASP" by Henry M. Holden.

April 15, 2012

The story of the WASP was not made public until the late 70's. Never did I learn in school of these women who piloted military planes during the 1940's.


* * *
Highly recommend No Turning Back: One Man's Inspiring True Story of Courage, Determination, and Hope by David Mack and Bryan Anderson
April 6, 2012

Bryan Anderson is such an inspiration. How can I complain about the pettiness of life, when he proudly and happily carries on with one arm, having lost part of his left arm and both legs from an IED.


* * *
Finished reading Spygirl : true adventures from my life as a private eye by Amy Gray and Blowing my cover : my life as a C.I.A. spy by Lindsay Moran. Libraries are the best !!!
March 14, 2012



* * *
Read two books by Jeannette Walls: Half Broke Horses and The Glass Castle. Wondering how many people I know who have lived without electricity and indoor plumbing...
March 10, 2012

Half Broke Horses is the story of the author's grandmother but which she wrote after The Glass Castle (her own story). Can you imagine moving to New York City without your parents to attend your senior year of high school?


* * *
Just finished reading "The Profiler - My Life Hunting Serial Killers & Psychopaths" by Pat Brown.
January 16, 2012

The TV show "Criminal Minds" (one of my favorites) centers around the work of FBI profilers. This book gives a different perspective from someone who is not a traditionally trained profiler.

My current online college course...

My current online college course uses a text called “Fundamentals of Management”. I am actively studying the first chapter and posted an email to my fellow classmates about something I read in the chapter. The point was worth sharing!

The section in the chapter I refer to is about the evolution of management and the history of management thought. Here is the body of the email:

Did anyone else notice that Hugo Munsterberg established a psychological lab at Harvard in 1892 yet his pioneering book was translated into English in 1913? Is it safe then to assume that his work at Harvard was conducted in German?

As a second language learner, this bit of trivia grabbed my attention.

The situation with Henri Fayol grabbed my attention as well -- he was dead for five years before his work was translated into English and he became known to US managers and scholars. Imagine what kind of collaboration could have taken place if Americans had taken the opportunity to study under Fayol while he was still alive. Had they been in the habit of regularly reading the newspapers of the day in French, they might have known about his work YEARS earlier. (Fayol “was the first to identify the specific managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling…Most contemporary management books, including this one [meaning my text], still use this same framework and practicing managers agree that these functions are a crucial part of their jobs”.)

Same deal with Max Weber and his work on bureaucracy --he died in 1920 and his contributions were not recognized until years had passed. His most important work was translated in English in 1947, twenty-seven years after he died. Unless he wrote it just before his death, about 30+ years passed before Americans benefitted from his work.

Yet the attitude I encounter from monolingual Americans is negative toward seriously learning other languages. What's the use they say?

These are perfect examples of why there is value in speaking other languages -- you can take advantage of the work of others and instead of re-inventing the wheel you can learn from them and build upon what they have done.

Lest anyone think I am anti-American, I was born here and have lived here all of my life. My parents were both bilingual but chose to raise their children as monolingual English speakers. I started to learn a second language in high school and after thirty years am now functional in that language. I have gone on to dabble in a third language and have learned simple words in two other languages.

(End of what was written to my classmates)

Whenever I travel, I tend to run into people who don’t speak English yet for whom I am able to offer assistance because I can speak some basic phrases in their language. It is a heartwarming feeling to put things learned in school (vocabulary, grammar, verb conjugations) to practical use reaching out to other human beings. It’s like the difference between learning about driving and actually getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. Or like the difference between smelling warm cinnabons and actually eating one. There is NO COMPARISON!

Diane

What are you reading?

What book are you currently reading? How did you choose to read this particular book? What is your opinion of the book thus far? Would you recommend it to a friend? Why / Why not?

If you are not currently reading a book, what was the last book you read?

If you do not remember reading a book, what do you like to read instead?

Do you exercise? What do you do for exercise? Alone / with others

In preparation for the 5k in June, I have been trying to walk daily. Yesterday, instead of visiting the cows, I went to the Walgreens across the street for a diet coke. Last night, Roy and I actually walked to the Walgreens near our house. Took us about an hour. It was nice to be walking together again.

Today at lunch, despite the need for an umbrella, I managed to again "visit the cows" and feed them some of the tops of the lovely weeds that grow outside the pasture. They congregated around the gate and did not seem fazed by my blue and white golf sized umbrella! I expected them to be spooky and skittish. For the most part, they seem calm and unfazed. The bull doesn't come near the gate. He follows the young cows and makes his silly faces, curling his upper lip like a clown!

After just a few days of walking, I feel better. Maintaining the exercise habit is where I struggle.

What about you? Do you currently exercise regularly? In what activities do you participate? Was it hard to get started? Do you prefer to exercise alone, with a friend, or in a group? What helped you to get in the habit?