This book offers a fascinating look at the evolution of the English language and the ways in which popular parlance shifts what's considered correct.
TThis book offers a fascinating look at the evolution of the English language and the ways in which popular parlance shifts what's considered correct.
The audiobook edition is optimal for absorbing the material, as the examples can be best understood in an audio format. I really appreciated the use of multiple narrators, based on the myriad topics covered....more
How is it that you can mercilessly play with my emotions with every story you write? I always end up with tears streaming down my Dammit Mr. Backman.
How is it that you can mercilessly play with my emotions with every story you write? I always end up with tears streaming down my face. How can I care for these characters just so damn much?
This is the third book in the Björnstad series by Fredrik Backman. I have really enjoyed listening to his audiobooks and I was excited to see that he had written another follow-up book to Beartown and Us Against You.
It's a complicated story - filled with birth and death, love and hate, anger and forgiveness, courage and fear, redemption and corruption. I really enjoyed listening to Marin Ireland narrate the audiobook edition of this book
interesting quotes (page numbers from edition with ISBN13):
"Mothers and daughters know how to wound in totally unique ways..." (p.)
"There's no life like youth, no love like first love, no friends like teammates." (p.)
Somewhat dated, this book covers myriad school subjects from A to Z. Basic science, history, math, language, and literature topics are briefly explainSomewhat dated, this book covers myriad school subjects from A to Z. Basic science, history, math, language, and literature topics are briefly explained and most entries are in a list format....more
This book offers a fascinating perspective on opportunities and challenges we face in the 21st century. I was very impressed with Yuval Noah Harari's This book offers a fascinating perspective on opportunities and challenges we face in the 21st century. I was very impressed with Yuval Noah Harari's previous books, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, so I expected good things from this book as well.
The narrative covers many touchy topics ranging from politics to religion to climate change to social justice to the role of technology in our lives. He does not shy away from providing his opinion in a highly convincing manner, and while I agree with most of what he has to say, I'm sure the book may anger many.
Overall, I really enjoyed listening to Derek Perkins narrate the audiobook edition and I look forward to Mr. Harari's next book.
interesting quote (page number from hardcover edition with ISBN13 978-0525512172):
"Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should be switching to teaching 'the four Cs' -- critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity." (p. 266)...more
I attended UMass at the same time as Briana Scurry and followed our school sports closely. As time passed, I was excited to see that Ms. Scurry was inI attended UMass at the same time as Briana Scurry and followed our school sports closely. As time passed, I was excited to see that Ms. Scurry was in goal for some of the most momentus events in women's soccer, especially in the early years of our national team participating in World Cup and Olympic competitions.
To my delight, I saw that Ms. Scurry would be participating in the October 2022 Fall For the Book events near George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. I was thrilled to hear her speak, have her sign the book I purchased at the event, and most of all, honored to be able to hold her two Olympic gold medals.
It took me a long time to read the book. If I want to read anything but a children's book, I seem to be only able to listen to audiobooks. But I'd read a little at night before bed and the last few chapters all at once. I appreciated her candid words and inspired by her story....more
I don't know how he does it, but Mr. Backman finds a way to make me cry big, ugly tears. I am surely just a sentimental fool, but I loved this bDamn.
I don't know how he does it, but Mr. Backman finds a way to make me cry big, ugly tears. I am surely just a sentimental fool, but I loved this book.
The ending is too pat; the connections between the characters are far too coincidental; the likelihood of such a scenario actually occurring is probably less than zero.
Yet I loved it all.
I think one of the things that I loved the most was the way in which he shows us the importance of love in our lives. He explains that as imperfect as we all are, parents will do just about anything for our children. As frustrating as our significant other can be, love is worth it. And as desperately hopeless as things may seem, life is worth living.
I really enjoyed listening to Marin Ireland narrate the audiobook edition. I was immersed completely in the story and listened to the whole book in one day.
interesting quotes (page numbers from edition with ISBN13 ):
"The real estate agent takes a deep breath and says what women usually say to men who never seem to think that their lack of knowledge should get in the way of a confident opinion: 'I'm sure you're right.'" (p. )
"Boats that stay in the harbor are safe, sweetheart, but that's not what boats were built for." (p. )
"They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows." (p. )
"We don't have a plan, we just do our best to get through the day, because there'll be another one coming along tomorrow." (p. )
"Something my dad says...He says you end up marrying the one you don't understand. Then you spend the rest of your life trying." (p. )
"Because that was a parent’s job: to provide shoulders. Shoulders for your children to sit on when they’re little so they can see the world, then stand on when they get older so they can reach the clouds, and sometimes lean against whenever they stumble and feel unsure." (p. )
"You don't have to like all children. Just one. And children don't need the world's best parents, just their own parents. To be perfectly honest with you, what they need most of the time is a chauffeur." (p. )
"...we do our best. We plant an apple tree today, even if we know the world is going to be destroyed tomorrow. We save those we can." (p. )
This book offers a number of essays about myriad topics with a final rating of the topic at the end of each. The topics are wide-ranging and curiouslyThis book offers a number of essays about myriad topics with a final rating of the topic at the end of each. The topics are wide-ranging and curiously unusual and I really enjoyed listening to Mr. Green narrate the audiobook edition.
interesting quotes (page numbers from large-print edition with ISBN13 978-0593412428):
"...the United States has laws and treaties and a constitution and so on, but none of that prevents a country from splitting apart or even disappearing. From the neoclassical architecture that attempts to give the U.S. a sense of permanence to the faces on our money, America has to continually convince its citizens that it is real and good and worthy of allegiance." (p. 102)
"...essentially all the penicillin in the world descends from the mold on that one cantaloupe in Peoria." (p. 121)
"Today, 'White Wilderness' is remembered not as a documentary about lemmings, but as a documentary about us and the lengths we will go to hold on to a lie." (p. 162)
"One of the strange things about adulthood is that you are your current self, but you are also all the selves you used to be, the ones you grew out of but can't ever quite get rid of." (p. 269)
"We should get out of the habit of saying that anything is once-in-a-lifetime. We should stop pretending that we have any idea how long a lifetime is or what might happen in one." (p. 326)
This is a fairly long audiobook, so I have to admit that I listened to it at a somewhat accelerated speed and I needed to take breaks.
Don't get me wrThis is a fairly long audiobook, so I have to admit that I listened to it at a somewhat accelerated speed and I needed to take breaks.
Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the accomplishments of Secretary Clinton, and I'm glad I've had a chance to listen to this book. But I had to intersperse listening to her with other books and audiobooks.
interesting quotes (page numbers from edition with ISBN13):
[Attributed to President Barack Obama] "We are willing to extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. " (p.)
This is the second book in the Björnstad series by Fredrik Backman. I have really enjoyed listening to his audiobooks and I was excited to see that heThis is the second book in the Björnstad series by Fredrik Backman. I have really enjoyed listening to his audiobooks and I was excited to see that he had written a follow-up book to Beartown.
It's a tough story - filled with anger, hate, fear, and corruption. But it's also filled with love and acceptance, honor and respect.
interesting quotes (page numbers from edition with ISBN13):
"...sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else." (p.)
"Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else." (p.)
"Everyone is a hundred different things, but in other people’s eyes we usually get the chance to be only one of them." (p.)
"Women are always the problem in the men’s world." (p.)
"The best friends of our childhoods are the loves of our lives, and they break our hearts in worse ways." (p.)
"Do you have to love me quite so hard?" (p.)
"It's just possible that there are more normal love stories." (p.)
"He’s twelve years old, and this summer he learns that people will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe." (p.)
"The complicated thing about good and bad people alike is that most of us can be both at the same time." (p.)
"Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else." (p.)
"The truth about most people is as simple as it is unbearable: we rarely want what is best for everyone; we mostly want what’s best for ourselves." (p.)
"It's so easy to get people to hate one another; that's what makes love so impossible to understand. Hate is so simple that it always ought to win. It's an uneven fight." (p.)
"It's so easy to think that what we post online is like raising your voice in a living room when it's actually more like shouting from the rooftops. Our fantasy worlds always have consequences for other people's realities." (p.)
"He had no team. So they gave him an army." (p.)
"We rarely know why a society’s bureaucracy works the way it does, because it’s impossible to charge anyone with corruption when everything could just as easily be blamed on incompetence." (p.)
"Masculinity is complicated when you’re twelve. And at every other age, too." (p.)
"The only thing I know how to do is to treat everyone fairly, not treat them all the same. (p.)
"When guys are scared of the dark, they’re scared of ghosts and monsters, but when girls are scared of the dark, they’re scared of guys." (p.)
"She's gotten taller this year without her jacket realizing it." (p. )...more
So I was thrilled to discover this story,I recently discovered the writings of Fredrik Backman, having listened to the audiobook for A Man Called Ove.
So I was thrilled to discover this story, and was even more intrigued when I saw how many great reviews it had gotten.
While the story revolves around a town that is desperately clinging to ice hockey as a way to save itself when the rest of the world seems to have moved on. The narrative is filled with the ills that afflict all society - bullying, alcoholism, suicide, sexism, competition, teenage hierarchies, parental neglect, rape, homophobia...
interesting quotes (page numbers from hardcover edition with ISBN13 978-1501160769):
"Never trust people who don't have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason." (p. 3)
"There are two things that are particularly good at reminding us of how old we are: children and sports." (p. 37)
"It's only a game. It only resolves tiny, insignificant things. Such as who gets validation. Who gets listened to. It allocates power and draws boundaries and turns some people into stars and others into spectators. That's all." (p. 53)
"We become what we are told we are. Ana has always been told that she's wrong." (p. 78)
"You might be playing with bears. But that doesn't mean you have to forget that you're a lion.," (p. 80)
"A long marriage is complicated." (p. 90)
"Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that's always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there's always someone who's freezing." (p. 110)
"Hockey is just a silly little game. We devote year after year to it without ever really hoping to get anything in return. We burn and bleed and cry, fully aware that the most the sport can give us, in the very best scenario, is incomprehensibly meager and worthless: just a few isolated moments of transcendence. That's all. But what the hell else is life made of?" (p. 147)
"It's a terrible thing to have to keep a big secret from the people you love." (p. 166)
"Never again do find friends like the ones you have when you're fifteen years old." (p. 222)
"In ten years' time, she will think that the biggest problem here was actually that she wasn't as shocked as all the adults were. They were more innocent than she was. She was fifteen and had access to the Internet; she already knew that the world is a cruel place if you’re a girl. Her parents couldn’t imagine that this could happen, but Maya simply hadn’t expected it to happen to her" (p. 235)
"Nothing in the world is as small as your own child in a hospital bed. There's no justice to be had." (p. 246)
"This planet knows no greater silence than two dozen hearts after a loss." (p.262)
"Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple. So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing that happens is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe - comforting facts, ones that permit life to go on as normal. The third is that we dehumanize our enemy." (p. 273)
"What is a community? The sum total of our choices." (p.)...more
If anything, this story gives me even more determination to make a conscious effort to preserve EarthWow. What a mind-blowing story. Depressing, too.
If anything, this story gives me even more determination to make a conscious effort to preserve Earth's precious resources...even more than I do already (insert groaning child here... Awww, Mom!).
It makes me that much more reluctant to become engaged in social media, television, and other media entertainment sources. It makes me want to just turn it all off and go read another book.
I often mention in my reviews that I have some odd coincidences in my reading selections, and this book offers another example. In one of my library school classes last night, we were discussing the phenomenon of Channel One News, which was a "news program for kids in middle school and early teens." From what I learned in class, the business model included providing televisions and other recording devices to schools for free, but the schools were required to play the broadcast content, which included advertising. I had never heard of this before, but it didn't surprise me.
Then, today, as I was listening to the story, I heard the following: "...some of the big media congloms got together and gave all this money and bought the schools so that all of them could have computers and pizza for lunch and stuff, which they gave for free, and now we do stuff in classes about how to work technology and how to find bargains and what's the best way to get a job and how to decorate our bedroom." (p. 110) While it's not the same thing, it was eerily close and really made me wonder how far away we are from something like the 'feed.'
shudder
Our oldest read this book and highly recommended it to me. I was not disappointed. The full cast production of this story was very entertaining and the audiobook was enhanced by the 'feed' of media advertisements and information flowing into my ears almost as if I had my own feed. I really enjoyed listening to this book and I will look for more books by this author at our local library....more
This book describes the process that one scientist and his team went through to confirm the discovery of a new species of animal in Central and South This book describes the process that one scientist and his team went through to confirm the discovery of a new species of animal in Central and South America.
The content and format of the book is very similar to the books in the Scientists in the Field series, but a bit shorter (in size of the book and number of pages).
The narrative is comprehensive enough to convey the years of effort that went into discovering and then confirming and reconfirming the data to prove that the Olunguito were indeed a separate species from the Olingo.
I am attending graduate school now and have had to do a lot of research using peer reviewed articles in scholarly journals. I thought it was very interesting that the book mentions that the scientists' first paper was rejected for publication and that the scientists needed to add more information about the olinguito's physical traits and behavior.
And I love that the book shows the persistence and dedication of this team, explaining that their research was finally published more than ten years after Kristofer first found the unusual pelt at the museum and suspected that it was from a separate species.
The back of the book includes a lot of supplementary material, including an author's note, source notes, a glossary, an index, and other information and resources.
interesting quote:
"Animals are considered distinct species if they are so different from one another they they are unlikely to mate and produce babies." (p. 7)...more
We discovered this book at our local library after a teen program (it was a Harry Potter-themed escape room) and I just had to check it out.
I loved We discovered this book at our local library after a teen program (it was a Harry Potter-themed escape room) and I just had to check it out.
I loved reading the Encyclopedia Brown books when I was young and this one was certainly new and seemed to be different from the others.
If you are expecting a typical book from the series, you may be disappointed. The very short anecdotes presented in this book are true tales that occurred primarily during the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, although other stories are included....more
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