La Reina Tuerta

How could a book with little to no plot, minimal character development, no special love of the English language, and low level vocabulary entice me to finish the book in one or two days? I knew the author’s work from other books. In the end, the rhythm and cadence she hits are the ones I have to ensure I like in mine, so that it is satisfying to the reader, however thin the actual storyline.  This is a useful reference point.

The biggest lesson, and almost a regret, is that I didn’t know how to clip the audio during my key takeaways. For the print books, I have been able to flip back through and find the key ideas. Rather than torture myself, I am going to write what I remember and then add as needed. He provides an explanation for the modern uses of like and lol. There is a term for their uses, and it explains how we actually text and speak today. I have been so far lost in foreign languages that I forget sometimes how rich it is to speak English as a mother tongue. I can always go back into the audio and find the references. Now I have found the PDF. A few interesting tidbits: - C for Compounds: a “black BIRD” is an adjective followed by a noun, while “BLACKbird” is a compound and a specific animal. Think a “white HOUSE” vs. the “WHITE house”. - K for Ket: New Speakers of Languages. The chances the elaborate languages can be learned by busy adults is pretty slim. At least, they can’t be learned completely...

These books have incredible pacing. They take you from event to even. They create a different world. They have comfortable plot and character development. Make sure to game check your works to have the following. It is not the same format, but the same elements are absolutely needed. 

I didn’t know what to expect of this book. I came across it when I was researching the word freier, since it has a chapter named “Fear of Frei-ing”. It was a much more personal account than I had anticipated, and it reminded me of how powerful storytelling can be. This is something I experience every day in sales, the need to tell a story, to draw the narrative, and there wasn’t much novel to me in this book, but it was interesting to get a somewhat historical perspective. The book was published in 1986, and he begins his narrative as a 20-year-old American heading to the motherland in 1967. Chafets ends up working for the Liberal Party, he describes the style of Menachem Begin and the Likud, he writes in more of an observer style than Netanyahu’s autobiography, which can’t be much of a surprise to anyone. They are all familiar themes, and not particularly well written or particularly captivating, which is probably why I did not read the second half of the book with as much attention a...

Botticini and Eckstein fact check each of the most common explanations for how Jewish people ended up a highly educated group known as an urban population of traders, entrepreneurs, financiers, lawyers, physicians and scholars. In the majority of the books I read in learning about Israel and the Jewish religion, these were the same cited phenomena: prohibited from owning land, diaspora population after the destruction of the Second Temple, repeatedly massacred, Christians were banned from lending money at interest. In other words, mobility is important, so human capital is worth more to this group, and it’s a small group.  The idea of chosen few is ingrained into my understanding of the group, and yet conversions to and from Judaism, forced or not, plays a role. After having completed the history of China course, and now that I’m in the midst of my wine studies, it is helpful to see how some of the same principles and themes, as well as frameworks, work throughout the various topic...

Talking to Strangers was a recommendation after a networking meal with one party who certainly oversold her reach and abilities. I was, of course, the freierit who fell exactly for the tricks described in this book. Before I get further into the lessons I want to remember for future reference, I would also like to mention how extraordinary I find Malcolm Gladwell, and how I do believe his unique background and appearance have allowed him access to see the world from the margins. He is of Jamaican descent without looking or sounding detectably black or African American and without a noticeably non-standard American name. Yet the intimacy with the issues, and I imagine the comments and conversations he has heard behind what others assumed were their closed doors, can only be accessed with someone who has lived a first person experience and worries for their families in a first person way. The first is the default to truth. The irony of this fault of mine, or the freirit mistakes I make, ...