February Read/Lydia

Title : Number the Stars

Author : Lois Lowry

Publisher : Yearling

ISBN : 0-440-40327-8

Summary :

The story begins at 1943 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Denmark was occupied by Germany at that time. German soldiers were everywhere in the city. The Johansen family and the Rosen family were living in the same apartment. Both parents and children were very close. Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen were 10 year-old-girls who went to the same school.

The Nazis planned to arrest all the Danish Jews and take them away. They called this process “relocation”. The Johansens decided to help the Rosen family, who were Jewish, to escape to Sweden. First, Mrs. Johansen brought her daughters and Ellen Rosen, who pretended to be part of the Johansen family, to her brother Henrik’s house which was located in north coast of Denmark. Next day they prepared an empty casket and pretended that their Great-aunt died. At night, a young couple carrying a sleeping baby, an old man, Mr. and Mrs. Rosen had gathered at uncle Henrik’s house for the fake funeral. Uncle Henrik was going to take them to his boat, it had a hidden place down underneath and there was a room to hide few people, across the sea to Sweden. Suddenly, German soldiers appeared and felt suspicious about not opening the casket. Mrs. Johansen answered them that the doctor said it should be closed, because Great-Aunt died of Typhus. The German soldiers got scared of being infected and left quickly. A few hours later, people split into two groups and walked the path to Henrik’s boat through the darkness.

  When they finally escaped, Annemarie found the paper-wrapped packet that was to deliver to her uncle. She didn’t know the content inside but realized that the packet is of important value. However Mrs. Johansen could not go to Henrik’s boat again, because she had led one group to the boat and had sprained her ankle to get back home. Now Annemarie tried to deliver the packet to her uncle and ran towards her uncle’s boat with a lunch basket that hid the packet at the bottom. She met German soldiers on her way but she pretended to be a little girl taking lunch to a fisherman. Finally Annemarie handed the packet to her uncle and the Rosens went to Sweden safely.

 Uncle Henrik told Annemarie that the packet was a handkerchief. The German soldiers were so angry about the escaping Jews and they had started using trained dogs that was trained to sniff about and find where people are hidden. The Resistance found a special drug when the dogs sniff at it, it ruins their sense of smell. The special drug was spread in the handkerchief.  If Annemarie had not handed the handkerchief to her uncle, the Rosen family could not have escaped to Sweden safely.

After reading :

This story is a historical fiction. The places and political situations are true but the characters are imagined by author. There were a lot of brave people, like the Johansen family, in this book. I think that it is not easy to follow the right decision when our lives are threatened by something, especially war or military forces. Although the neighbors were in serious danger, without any fault, the Johansen family helped them, even Annemarie who was a 10-year-old-girl.

February Read/3

Title: Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don’t, And How to Make Any Change Stick

Author: Dean, Jeremy

Call Number: 153.85 D281M 2013

Subjects: Habit; Habit Breaking; Behavior Modification; Change; Self Control

Number of Pages: 264

ISBN: 9780738215983

Book Description (from the back cover):

            One of the goals of habit change is to make ourselves happier. We might be trying to improve our work habits so we can get more done in less time or our socializing habits so we can spend more time with friends and family. Good habits can do all sorts of things for us, but will they make us happy?...

            Habits, if they take complete control, can lock us into the same boring grooves. The challenge is to work out which habits keep leading to dead ends and which habits lead to interesting new experiences, happiness, and a sense of personal satisfaction.

            “Where will you start?”

My Read:

            “Where will you start?” The author ends the book by asking and provoking a question. I do appreciate reading such books that, after finished the book, would pique my curiosity and invite me to think, ponder, and reflect. By and large, I would ask the self the reason and purpose why I go on reading and searching more books to read: to satisfy my curious mind and at the same time, to find ways to better the self.

            The first question I like comes from page 13: “What did I plan to do today?” and “What do I actually want to do now?” The author states: “As a consequence, a world of possibility opens up. Being a soul of competitive in nature I usually would ask myself as I walk in the workplace: what goals I would like to achieve and the possibility of being able to accomplish. This goal setting mindset helps me to concentrate on tasks, especially those less people pay attention to.

            At page 44, it reads: A habit of thought activated outside conscious awareness can measurably change people’s behavior. This leads to the second question I recall from page 155: …As a result, what you want to change, and why, will become more obvious. Though it might not be related to the topic of habit it does have similar theme. I am now mentoring two coworkers who hold potentials and own the right work morale and attitudes. Repetitively I share with them the following mindset I have acquired over the years: cultivate the habit and build up the ability to savor and enjoy the tasks that most people dislike and hate. It’s an ability leading to happiness; the kind of happiness comes from owning a sense of achievement. And this directs us to the following…

            “The “how” of happiness is the problem because it can be difficult to say exactly what provides happiness.” The how question is not as difficult as it seems. Sense of achievement, to me, comes from who you are, who you want to be, and who you know you are. Life is full of possibilities, opportunities, and challenges helping a person to become who s/he is meant to be. For instance, customer service is, to me, about self-growth. What attitude you acquire, and the values you cherish would reflect on what you are willing to do to help your customers. How would you feel if you were at the other side of the service counter? Ask yourself as often as possible…You would find your heart becomes softer and some part of your body and mind would melt as a smile is looking at you. For being mindful is about living in the moment (page 153).

            Overall I especially enjoy reading chapter 12 titled “Creative Habits.” It’s a coincidence that creativity is the topic I recently had a talk with my son; he is a college senior majoring Art. At page 199 it states: Psychologists have found that some of the most productive constraints, those that enable us to throw off habitual patterns of thought, are those that imagine a different world-that ask, “what if?” For example, what if we abolished money? Or, what if we turned the Internet off? Or, what if… The chapter also introduces the idea of making connection between creativity and the ability to generate opposites. This reminds me of the idea from another book I read about innovation. In that book one of the methods to get innovative is to look at the opposite when everyone else is looking at the same direction.

            “Put crudely, if you add up all these little ups and downs, what emerges is your level of happiness within the limits set by your genes and circumstances.”-page 218

            “When these people are fully engaged with their current activity they are happier.”-page 226

            “Be looking for something new in the familiar.”-page 227

            To sum up, the most helpful tip I got from reading this book is that if one wants to change certain habit the most efficient way is to change environment. This reminds me of an ancient story about a wise mother who relocated 3 times to help her son grow into a legend sage: Meng Tzu.

            “Where will you start?”

           

February Read/2

Title: The Complete Book of Numerology: Discovering the Inner Self

Author: Phillips, David A. Ph.D

Call Number: 133.335 P558C 2012

Subjects: Numerology

ISBN: 9781401907273

Number of Pages: 271

Book Description (from the back cover of the book):

            To the conventional scientist, numbers are merely symbols of comparative quantities, but in the broader, metaphysical sense, they assume a deeper, more profound significance.

            The Complete Book of Numerology reveals the underlying meaning behind the numbers in your life and enables you to understand the connection between your numerological patterns and your degree of abundance, health, and general well-being.

            Overall, delving into the world of numbers will provide you with a simple and accurate way to decipher your experiences in the same manner that a road map helps you navigate a route that you haven’t previously traveled.

My Read:

            From the beginning of the book, the author states the purpose of the Numerology: to help a person to discover who she really is, how a person can further improve and understand her life, to assist a person to relate better to other people, maintain good health and live a thoroughly loving life (page 3). I do believe that there must be some purpose and mission in a person’s given life. How do I know this? Or is there any proof of such assumption? My believed proof comes from daily life. Whenever I read an article or a story about some good deeds done by certain people I felt touched as if something stroke my invisible chord.

            The author says there are 3 aspects of Self: Basic Self, Conscious Self, and High Self. Basic Self comes from the expression of our five physical senses. Conscious Self is the home of our thoughts and attitudes; it is the domain of memory, creativity and idealism (page 10). High Self is our highest form of expression, the essence of sensitivity and feeling. It includes our moral virtues, philosophical ideas and spiritual values (page 11). The mention and description of the 3 Selfs remind me of elements of who we are: body, mind, and spirit and the difference of individual values: materials (money, power, fame), spiritual pursuit (personal), and altruism(humanity).

            Out of curiosity, I used the instructions the author provides in the book to exercise my own chart. The discovery? It’s intriguing to compare what’d happened with what the numbers say about me and my life. What the book and the messages from the book mean to me is that life is full of challenges and, at the same time, opportunities. To those who are unaware, challenges mean frustration, sadness, depression, and failures. Yet to those who are aware and appreciative, opportunities come from plenty of aspects of life. At facing difficult time and years, the unaware feel stuck, dragged, and, despondent. Dealing with the similar dilemma, the aware and courageous ones become keen students. They don’t give up too soon or find excuses; instead they become fighters and some, leaders. I do believe that mindset rules and attitude defines delicacy of who a person represents.

            Personally I appreciate what the author says at the end of the book. He further says: “None of us is born perfect. Hence our purpose here is to evolve toward perfection. We definitely have a choice-to grow a little each lifetime or to stay here and get it all done, making the very best of what we have…but remember as we travel, it’s not the way the wind is blowing that determines our progress-over that we have no control; progress is only achieved by the way we set our sails.” (page 268-269)

           

January Read/Patti

Title: Excavation

Author: Rollins, James

The story is fiction. It is an adventure/fantasy story. It is long.

     Professor Henry Collins is an archaeologist who has brought back to the United States a mummy that he unearthed in the Andean South American mountains of Peru.  While inspecting it, the skull exploded and was filled with a golden type liquid that has weird properties.

    At the same time as this is going on, Professor Collins has a group of young archaeologists who are on a dig in these Andean mountains to continue excavating a newly found ancient Indian city, hidden in the jungle terrain. It has an underground part.

    There is a long held rumor that there may be hidden there a king's treasure and something that will give great power.

    The young people are sabotaged by members of the Catholic church who were originally of a supposedly disbanded group of the ancient Inquisitors.  They sabotage the site and leave the young people stranded in  the underground part of the city.  

     They do find the treasure, but can't touch it as it has a lot of booby trap protections. They go through all sorts of booby trapped situations and terrible conditions as well as being attacked by weird monster type beings.  They of course manage to escape out into a valley that is peopled by Indians who never age and have lived many lifetimes.  The church people somehow get to the valley too and kill the Indians including their king.

    The young people have a miraculous rescue by the professor.  The artifact that is found is something that can cause horrible things. it is somehow destroyed and the terrible villains. The good people live happily ever after in this fantasy.  I did enjoy it even though it was terribly unrealistic.  Rollins books are this sort of high adventure matched with a fantasy element. One of his books in a very long while is ok.

February Read

Title: Unthink: Rediscover Your Creative Genius

Author: Wahl, Erik

Call Number: 153.35 W136U 2013

Subjects: Creative Thinking; Creative Ability in Business; Organizational Change

Number of Pages: 223

ISBN: 9780770434007

Book Description (inside the book jacket):

            In Unthink, artist and entrepreneur Erik Wahl pushes the boundaries of traditional thought patterns to unleash the creative genius that resides in all of us.

            You can be both intelligent and intuitive, tactical and pioneering, calculated and creative. You just have to reconnect with who you were before traditional education and corporate culture dulled your artistic senses. Unthink offers an original frame of thinking and tools that will make new creative actions possible. You’ll step outside convention to discover unexpected solutions to business challenges. You’ll inject your daily grind with passionate new meaning. You’ll rethink your assumptions about your role in the workplace. And you’ll begin the process of recasting your life as a blank canvas of limitless opportunities on which you can create your masterpiece.

            Rediscovering your creativity will change everything, from how well you do your job and why you go to work every day to how you find fulfillment at home. No ordinary book, Unthink is a clarion call to radically change the way you think and live.

My Read:

            There are two points the author points out in his book stay vividly with me as I close the book and wonder what I could have gained from reading this nonfiction book. The first one is: To know why we do what we do and the second is: to be able to connect the dots in certain ways that no one has ever seen or tried before.

            “To know why we do what we do” is the message pinpointing the role passion playing in a person. If you ask people at workplace why morale is low the answers vary. And, not surprisingly, “low paid” or “money” would be the most excuse people would provide for the reasons they hate or dislike their job. But I wonder what kind of answer people would mouth if the question is “How much do you think you are worth of?” At work people are able to hide behind the “group failure” wall if things don’t go well; because we are not supposed to “name names.” A person with passion, on the other hand, doesn’t care about recognition or label; rewards are just not as exciting as challenges and the sense of achievement when one is able to overcome obstacles and beat the odds. The joy comes from inside and the successes and champions are fraught with strong will and newly acquired skills and experiences. No pain, no gain.

             “Connect the dots with the right way, the right place, and the right people.” Innovation and creativity are not generated from the thin air; they are usually things and places people overlooked or overthought. Chinese have a saying: When the combination of “heavenly time(天時),” “earthly advantage(地利)” and “people harmony(人和)” takes place a river is created as the waters arrive(水到渠成).

            In this book, artist and known speaker, Erik Wahl states there are choices a person can make to become creative. A person can choose to be a P.I.C.A.S.S.O.

P-Provocative

I-Intuitive

C-Convicted

A-Accelerated

S-Spontaneous

S-Surrendered

O-Original

            Quotes from the book:

-Curiosity ruled our senses. Enthusiasm ignited our actions. We did not fear what we did not know-instead we thrived on the process of discovery (page 19)

-“There is more in us than we know, if we can be made to see it, we will be unwilling to settle for less.”(page 31)

-When mystery leads, curiosity follows. Whys, Why nots, and What ifs.(page 32)

-Innovation was highest when knowledge was lowest. (page 34)

-Take ownership of your job and elevate it without being asked and without asking. Do what’s best for your work and your company’s success. Earn a reputation for innovation and excellence in every aspect of what you do. That will only increase the freedom you are given, not jeopardize it. (page 79)

-If you are tired of the combative tone in your work meeting, instigate a new tone. Ask: what your team could have done differently to help the other departments. (page 75) Instead of blaming or pointing fingers the aforementioned question will provoke people to consider dropping their agendas and entering into a productive collaboration. (page 76)

            Read the book and be ready to be provoked.

References:

Steve Jobs-Think Different Campaign 1997

Time magazines-Top 10 Greatest Speeches

David Shaner-The Seven Arts of Change: Leading Business Transformation That Lasts

Glenn Llopis-Earning Serendipity: 4 Skills for Creating and Sustaining Good Fortune in Your Work

Daniel Pink-A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World

Scott Thorpe-How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover Your Hidden Genius

January Read/Ruby

Title: Rich Dad's Rich Kid Smart Kid

Author: Kiyosaki, Robert T.

Call Number: 332.024 K62R 2012

Subjects: Finance, Personal; Investments

ISBN: 9781612680606

Number of Pages: 277

Ruby' Read: 

    The author, Robert T Kiyosaki, had two father figures in his life. The man he calls rich dad was his best friend Mike's dad. The man he calls poor dad was his real dad. His poor dad was an academic genius and educator but his rich dad was financial genius and also a great teacher. His smart but poor dad was the head of the educational system of Hawaii, but always struggles financially all his life. His rich dad was without good education but built his own business and earned a lot of money.

    Robert wrote the book is not telling us education isn't important, he is not suggesting that we take our child out of school, the problem is that school doesn't teach financial skills, many kids leave school without a winning financial formula. He is talking about how to mold a child's perceptions on money. The most important a parent can do when it comes to money, he wants parents to give their children the perception that the child has power over money, rather than the child is a slave to money.

    Robert's rich dad forbade his son and Robert form saying, " I can't afford it." to help them change their perceptions of themselves. He had them say instead, " How can I afford it?" If you examine these two statements, you will see that the question, " How can I afford it?" opens  your mind to examining the possibilities of accumulating wealth. The statement, " I can't afford it." on the other hand, closes your mind to any possibility of attaining what you desire.

    Robert's rich dad taught him three steps to learning about money:

Step 1: Simple drawings 

Income Statement                                                   Balance Sheet

Income	Expenses	Assets	Liabilities

                 

Step 2: play

Step 3: Real life

    But Robert recommends that most parents start at step two. Sometimes he might not talk about step one until he was certain tha child was interested or ready to learn such concepts. He used to recommend beginning with the game of Monopoly, many of his friends who are investors or entrepreneurs tell him that they also played Monopoly by he hour, fascinated by it. Without that fascination, he would not force the subject of money or investing, much less financial statements, on young people.

    Robert's two dads believed that all kids are born rich and smart. Intelligence is the ability to make finer distinctions. Words allow your mind to make those finer distinctions and what your eyes cannot. for example, there is a world of difference between an asset and a liability, but most people are not aware of the differences. Simply knowing that difference can greatly influence the financial outcome of a person's life. There are three different types of income: ordinary, passive and portfolio, they all fall under the umbrella of the word income, but there is a tremendous difference between each of three incomes. When you tell your child, " Go to school, get good grades, and get a job," you are advising your child to work for ordinary income. One big problem with ordinary income is that is the highest taxed of the three incomes, and it also gives you the least control over taxes.

    This a a book from the different views about money, and there are a lot of interesting opinions and examples. Many people are in financial trouble simply because they are using words they don't understand. There are some sentences that Robert's rich dad told them:

"Assets put money in your pocket, and liabilities take money out of your pocket." " If you stop working, assets will feed you, and liabilities will eat you." In simple words but you can totally understand the differences between asset and liability.