Irena

Professor + professor = 0,75 professor

Revisado: 08-01-19

I'm not sure I liked the idea of two professors ( William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman) lecturing together in a weird academic duo -- not each of them doing a separate lecture but both speaking in turns on the same topic and with the same attitude, more or less echoing each other's thoughts.

Also, there was lots of praising of Francis of Assisi, admiration with his essence and legacy, explaining why and how he was such a great Christian, retelling of the stories about his great miracles and discussing how modern Christians could attempt follow in his steps. What seriously lacked was the scientific approach. The great "miracles" were never discussed scientifically. For example, it was simply stated a number of times that Francis miraculously received his stigmata (the wounds similar to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ) as the final step of his way to embrace Jesus. No attempt was made to give a scientific explanation of the origin of his miraculous wounds although modern research can provide it. Obviously, faced with a Christian miracle, the distinguished professors are not in the least interested in the scientific research of the phenomena.

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A bestelling fantasy about WWII in France

Revisado: 06-25-17

When an American author decides to imagine a bestselling tale about WWII in France, there is a chance that the outcome might be just as subtle and credible as a typical Hollywood blockbuster. And this is exactly the case of Nightingale.

Stereotypes abound: chestnuts are growing everywhere; people of moderate income leaving near a small town in the Loire valley drink champagne on a country picnic; and they also happen to have a Renault car in their garage, though why a postman and a primary school teacher in the countryside in 1930s France would own a car and not just a bicycle is beyond sane logic; and so forth and so on.

Inconsistencies proliferate. Just a couple of pages after the story moves to France, there is the first big one. We are told that Viann is about 14 years old when her father leaves her and her 4 year old sister in the care of a stranger. Then we are informed that Viann met the love of her life, got pregnant, got married and lost her baby. She is about 17 now, and she is very depressed after the miscarriage. She has no energy to take care of her impetuous 4 year old sister. Wait a moment? How come Viann is 17 now but her sister is still 4 a couple of year later? Oh well, who cares. Certainly not the writer and the editor who must have had more important matters on their minds.

Another example: Viann loses her work as a teacher and is terrified how she would survive now with war going on, with her money spent and with her husband a prisoner of war. Completely understandable. But her best friend (who has two kids and not one like Viann and whose husband is also the prisoner of war and who is also poorer than Viann) lost her teaching job a while ago, when all Jewish teachers were fired. Not even for a moment Viann or the author think how on earth she survives without a job, husband and money. Or maybe she has a secret account in a Swiss bank, being Jewish and all that. No, it is stated repeatedly that she is poor. Oh well, Jews don't need to eat -- obviously, they are never hungry.

There are many more inconsistencies, but I don't want to rob you of the questionable pleasure of discovering them on your own.

The story is heavily based on platitudes and stereotypes with an addition of melodramatic scenes which would make Romeo and Juliette's finale pale in comparison (the last scene with Isabelle). Everything about characters' thoughts and feelings is told and retold many times, repeatedly drummed and re-drummed into readers' ears so that there would be no mistake of how the character feels about this or that. Nothing is left to the dangerous uncertainty of readers' imagination. There is also an added bonus of political correctness, charming interludes like "monks used the tunnel to escape the SO CALLED barbarians" (you wouldn't risk offending the descendants of barbarians by omitting the "so called", do you?).

The plot reminds a lego kit for a WWII story put to a good usage:
1)Start by a conventional character who is a model wife and an "ordinary" woman.
2)Now what would we need to cover in our story ? Persecutions of Jews, French resistance, Nazi occupation.
3)Fine! Here we go:
Make the main character's best friend Jewish and place her next door.
Make her younger sister an eternal rebel (that's for resistance, of course). Let her stumble onto a charming communist thief in the very first days of the war.
Add a good Nazi and a bad Nazi.
4)The rest is history. Of course, you'll need some additional characters, but the essential foundation is there. Wrap everything into a smooth prose with a steady flow to mask cliches, stereotypes and inconsistencies, and wait for glorious reviews.

But of course, to produce a true American bestseller one has to firmly anchor the story in US to make it relevant for the wide American audience -- because who would best-sell and best-read a story about a bunch of French characters stuck in their own French environment? This is why not only French postman and primary teacher from a small town in Loire valley decide to move to America soon after the war, but they also never come back, at least not before receiving an invitation to the reunion of French resistance heroes in 1995. Apparently they need to run away to US to leave behind their painful memories. So very realistic. Do you buy this? Good for you. I don't.

To summarize: if you are not interested in credibility and realism, if you know nothing about France, French language and culture, and especially if you are not bothered by supposedly French characters acting American and thinking American, I highly recommend this book to your attention. You will enjoy it.

Otherwise read memoirs of people who lived through these events or fictional books on this topic by other authors.

A note on the reading: why do French characters speaking to each other in French habitat have a slight French accent in a book written in English? Do they really speak to each other in English with French accent or do they have an accent in French? If this is to help listeners to keep in mind that this is a book about France, then probably the reader doesn't have a particularly high opinion about the listeners' intelligence.

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Informative, thought provoking and entertaining.

Revisado: 10-25-15

This course explores how each significant discovery, each scientific revolution causes us to redefine our understanding of reality. Steven Gimbel is an excellent narrator. He examines the widest range of scientific disciplines (physics, cosmology, mathematics, chemistry, biology, genetics, cybernetics, psychology, sociology), illustrating the emerging pattern: our view of the world develops from a simplified atomistic picture(studying properties of discrete objects) to the study of relations between the objects and then to the holistic picture(studying the whole interconnected system as the ultimate model of reality). "Redefining Reality" is one of the most thought provoking, entertaining and informative courses I've ever listened to.

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Sociolinguistics of conversational styles.

Revisado: 10-01-15

I loved this course. Excellent, both in content and in narration. Professor Debora Tannen presents sociolinguistics' findings on cultural and gender differences between conversational styles in engaging andceffective way, but also without dumbing down the topic.

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Wonderful book, awful narration

Revisado: 08-12-14

I had to stop after the second chapter, for the fear of totally ruining the pleasure of listening to George Eliot's book. The screeching, croaking voice of the narrator was impossible to bear, and it prevented me from understanding what was going on. I bought the version narrated Laura Paton, and it was a wonderful listen. George Eliot's vividly and realistically depicted characters came to life in all their richness.

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A weird choice of reading material.

Revisado: 05-02-14

A weird assemblage of three stories presented as an "Easy Italian Reading". Good easy reading books usually contain interesting and entertaining reading material. This one is made of the three pieces written by Alfonso Borello which undergone some grammar and vocabulary simplification.

The first story is quite boring, with a big chunk of it being a philosophical discussion between Socrates and his colleagues about the nature and interaction of love and beauty.

The second piece is moderately interesting; it is an article about healthy versus unhealthy food habits which ultimately argues that osteoporosis is caused by consuming too much meat and thus reducing the quantity of calcium in blood.

The third story is devoted to the tragic fate of Tanzania's albinos with many a graphic description of monstrosities perpetrated by witchcraft customers hunting for albino's bodyparts. It's a moving and shocking story, but is it a suitable material for an Easy Italian reader? Well, it's up to you to decide. On the whole, it looks as if the author pulled these three stories from his portfolio at random and decided to re-market them for the audience looking for an easy reading material.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Pleasure for polyglots, treasure for newbies

Revisado: 05-01-14

If you consider learning a foreign language but have any kind of doubts about your ability to learn it or about how to proceed, this is a perfect book for you -- a treasure-trove of motivation bust and practical advice. Also if you've been actually trying to learn one or more foreign languages but without much success, this well be a very helpful book for you. Even if you are already passionate about learning languages and made a tangible progress with one or more of them, this will be inspirational and enriching book for you and -- you will still find lots of useful tips for language learning and will be reassured that what you do is not a crazy obsession but a quest shared by many others.

The author is clearly passionate about languages; his advice is knowledgeable and sincere. Unlike so many others, he does not proclaim himself a discoverer of the best, the one and only, way to learn a foreign language but instead shares a lot of his personal experience and valuable advice, stating that the most important thing to succeed is to be passionate about learning the language. I couldn't agree more.

I didn't expect much from this book (fluent in three months, it's sounds like another marketing gimmick), but it turned out to be one of the best books about language learning I've ever read.

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esto le resultó útil a 52 personas

A good introduction into The Dead Sea Scrolls

Revisado: 01-12-14

Fourteen lectures about the Dead Sea Scrolls by a professor who has been actively researching in this field for many years. He is passionate about the subject and has interesting theories and suggestions regarding many topics, but, unlike some other Modern Scholar lecturers, Lawrence H. Schiffman always takes care mentioning competing theories instead of stating his own position wrapped into "it is obvious that" or "as everybody knows".

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For writers -- to read and reread.

Revisado: 06-12-13

This is a book of interviews with (or essays by) lots of people involved in the business of writing: literary agents, publishers, editors, writers, writing teachers. This is what makes this book so valuable -- the variety of subjects (agenting, editing, contracts and taxing, publishing with big houses, small press publishing, self publishing, fiction, non-fiction, young adults books, picture books, graphic novels, poetry -- you name it, it's covered here) and the stress on nuts and bolts of writing business and its practical issues(though along the way you can gain lots of motivation as well). I was a bit disappointed at the beginning of the book because the first couple of sample queries and proposals were from already established writers with previously published books. This did not seem much of a challenge -- it seemed pretty obvious that a proposal or a query coming from a writer with such pedigree was bound to be successful. But interviews with writers about making a breakthrough and publishing their first books followed in due course, as well as interviews with agents, editors and publishers that had more too say about publishing your first novel. It is a very useful book full of valuable information and advice -- the book to read and reread if you are interested in the subject.

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Overwhelmingly boring

Revisado: 02-24-13

I don't recommend this book if you are a software engineer or manager, or any other kind of insider in the software development. You'll find little useful or interesting information here and lots of annoying demagogy. The only informative places were those that quoted books and articles on the matter written by professionals. However, the author did have one true epiphany: at the middle of the book he wrote that if the reader were a software engineer, he probably had thrown his book into the other corner of the room by then. I would have done the same if it wasn't an audio book. By the way, the reader of an audio book suited the overall annoying and dilettante tone very well by over-dramatizing every single sentence.

I can't see how outsiders can be interested in this book either: the detailed agony over databases, widgets' libraries and GUI design that is so familiar to software developers must be pretty boring to anybody else.

The only audience I can recommend this book to are journalists that don't know much about the matter but nevertheless want to come up with an "insightful" book about software development.

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esto le resultó útil a 15 personas