Tuesdays With Morrie - My Thoughts

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I just finished reading the book Tuesdays with Morrie and it is as inspiring as what people have said about it. I have read Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith as well, two years ago. And they are very inspiring, why? Because, for one, it's non-fiction which means it's true-to-life, obviously and it brings out more emotions to the readers because you feel like you have met the same people and you have been with the author in his journey and you have experienced it first hand though you are just sitting in your room reading. But that's what I like about it.

Okay, for those who do not know the story, here is the gist. In college, Morrie Schwartz was Mitch's psychology professor. But to him, he was more of a mentor and as the story progressed, they became almost like relatives. Often, Mitch calls him "coach" as Morrie had come to like it and so, he is called "player". After he graduates from college, he started to seek out a job. Many times he failed until the death of his uncle drove him to go back to school. Eventually, he got a master's degree in journalism and became a sports writer. He went from New York to Florida and finally landed on Detroit where he worked for the Detroit Free Press.

From there, his life started to turn around for the better. He quit renting and bought a house and a car. He married afterwards. All his life, he was chasing after his accomplishments which seemed to give him satisfaction and worth in his life. He thought he could control things when he was successful and so he tried. Up until one night when he hears his professor's name on the TV. Who is Morrie Schwartz? And it hit him.

That was the start of his turning a new leaf. His professor from then on showed him new perspectives and gave him advice on how to live life. By that time, Morrie was already terminally ill and has no more than a few years or even less to live. After realizing that his death was imminent, he started to live. He called everyone he knew, he started to share to people his story--he was simply making his life worth something not only to him but to others. His condition became known to many people and he started receiving letters from people all over.

Mitch got the opportunity to know his professor up-close. He was able to learn many things from him regarding relationships, life, death, marriage, values. He became like a child to Morrie. And the book became his 'final thesis' with his professor. Time came when Morrie was bed-ridden. Lifting his hand was already a heavy load for him to do. Through it all, Mitch was beside him, to help him. Usually they met on Tuesdays and every Tuesday, they would have a great time just talking to each other.

Morrie died peacefully as he always wanted. Nobody was there when he gasped his last breath but it was what he wished for--to have nobody hold on to the memory of knowing that you were there beside him, knowing that you were not able to do anything. He did not want anybody to feel pity for him or to feel guilty, he did not want anybody else to suffer. He just lived life as normally as possible even with the illness. And Mitch still felt the same way toward his professor when he was in college, and when he was almost going to die. Nothing changed except that he became even more cheerful that he got the chance to spend time with all the people before he died.

It is a really great story. For me, to be so engrossed in a book that I would not put it down says something about the book and the author. I read it in one sitting and every page of the book has something that can inspire you. You can feel the literature coming to life and you feel every bit as the author feels. And I believe, Mitch feels deeply for his professor. And I came to like him as well, and I realized more about my life than I have sitting in front of the computer. I have learned so much from this book and I bet everyone who has read it has been consumed and motivated by it.

The Me I Want to Be By John Ortberg

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I work in real estate and I also work for a golf ministry. I love working with people and get frustrated when there is too much bureaucracy especially when it comes to paperwork and real estate. I know me, mostly, and I know that I love working with people and helping them. The golf ministry gives me so much pleasure it feels as if I am not really working most of the time. I help with a programme where young golfers get to follow around golf pros during practice round day and have a q and a session with them. This is super fun and kids and their parents really get into it. The organization of something like this can be a bit overwhelming but nearly all the time everyone is very patient and also gracious. I say all this because this book, along with a couple of others I have read recently (StandOut being uber helpful), have solidified for me that it is okay to do what you love and get paid for it as well. We all have skills that we know about but what about the things that we haven't refined yet.

I have been involved in community events and organization for years now and more recently organize an event in our neighbourhood that is very popular and also great fun. These books helped me to realize (as well as some very helpful and positive feedback from friends) that I should be pursuing a career in event planning and community organization/planning because they are things that I am very good at and also love doing. What a concept. Now many of you are probably thinking 'well duh' but we are so conditioned to thinking about the job rather than the joy. I do not expect to earn a fortune and I'm not going to give up my job with FCA Golf because I make a difference in people's lives and I love doing that. So what's a person to do? Well this book talks about relationships and using our time wisely as well as getting back to what we know and love. I now am stepping out in faith, literally as well as figuratively, and going for it. Now would I have done this without reading these books? I don't know as I am pretty impulsive which I know can be very negative but the positive side of that is I am not afraid of new things. In fact I embrace them.

Next year I am presenting at a women's conference on friendship. This has become a hot topic for me recently. I have previously studied and taught on worldview and church history and find that making history fun helps people to learn about it. Friendship is something that is becoming more difficult for people. We have Facebook and thousands of 'friends' but no face to face time which we need. There are a great couple of chapters which deal with these topics in the book as well so they helped me with that project too. See, a multi-faceted book.

Suffice it to say, we need to be moving forward in our lives and not stagnate. How do you want to be? The me I want to be is a long way off but I am trying and hope that this book helps you to do the same.

You can find more of my book and movie reviews at: http://ukchica.com/

Book Review: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

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'Three Cups of Tea' is a remarkably interesting and unbelievably honest tale of Mortenson's mission to build schools for the children of the most remotest villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Honouring the memory of a deceased sister landed Mortenson at the foot of king K2 (the second highest mountain) in northern Pakistan where a failed attempt and an injury led him to a small village at the foot of the mountain. Inspired by the hospitality of the simple village people and their simple life, Mortenson promised to build a school for the children of the village. After a year spent in collecting donations and resources, Mortenson returned to Khorpe to fulfill his promise and ended up building not one but more than 55 schools in the cold northern terrain of Pakistan. Building schools for children who have never seen a school is like fulfilling a dream of generations of people dwelling at the highest valleys of the world.

Mortenson's simple and straightforward approach towards building Khorpe School instills a new vision and a new hope in readers. As much as Central Asian Institute (CAI's) work is impressive, Mortenson's attitude towards fulfilling his first promise with the Khorpe people and transforming this single promise in to life long CAI's goal is deeply inspiring.

It is admiring to get a different glimpse of Afghanistan and the Afghan people. It is surprising to read that a country worst affected in the aftermath of 9/11 and the rough Afghans who have become accustomed to guns and fighting after living through decades of warfare could welcome a person from their 'enemy country' and support him with their lives.

In spite of all the criticisms and allegations that surrounds the book and its author, this book is worth reading especially with reference to the culture of education especially girls education in Pakistan...it describes the importance and the logic behind promoting girls education where educated boys move to cities for good jobs and educated girls remain inside home to nurture and polish lives of future generations...it will inspire you to redefine your attitude towards impoverished people...it will inspire you to reach out and make a difference into their lives

I hope that we each do our part to leave them (children of Pakistan and Afghanistan) a legacy of peace instead of the perpetual cycle of violence, war, terrorism, racism, exploitation, and bigotry that we have yet to conquer".

The author works for the Aga Khan Foundation Pakistan in its aim to promote education especially girls education and Early Childhood Development for the ultra poors of the society.

International Affairs Is An Excellent Information Source

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Anyone who likes to keep up with world affairs and America's international relationships with the other countries of the world will find International Affairs by Davis K. Thanjan to be a fascinating read. The volume combines interesting facts about the countries it discusses with an astute eye towards how they influence the United States and vice-versa. It's part an a book of facts, and in part a political analysis of how much influence other nations have upon America and the reasons why they do. If you're looking for an excellent reference tool to help you research information about the U.S. foreign policy and the role it plays in shaping international politics, trade, and war and peace around the globe, then International Affairs is a book made especially with you in mind.

The book begins with a chapter on the world as a whole, and then each of the following chapters focuses on the various world and government organizations and the different countries as individual entities and as they interrelate with the U.S.A. So, you can read about such facts as how the world's countries rank in their oil consumption and production, GNP, and their coal reserves. How many nuclear bombs have been detonated since 1945? More than 2,000. How many nations are in the Arab League? 21. Which nation was suspended from it in 2011? Libya. Who owns the sea beds, if anyone? Read the book to find out!

Do you know which countries make up the Euro Zone? What is the European Economic Area (EEA)? Did you know that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) "is one of the largest international security organizations"? But, despite this, they have largely failed to provide much of a degree of security. Thanjan's book mentions several instances of times it has failed in its stated aim to provide security, which makes the organization's relevance "questionable."

The organization of the chapters of International Affairs makes it very easy to look up wichever region or country you'd like to read information about. Sometimes, as you skim through the book, your eye will be attracted to other information about some region of the planet that you might not have though you'd be interested in reading about, only to discover fascinating facts that make you want to stop and read them.

One of the many examples of this that I encountered was when I was reading the chapter on "Eastern Europe." I hadn't expected to read about some of the reasons why "Russia is retreating from the democratic process," but I did, and learned that there are really several reason why. For instance, the election of 2007 "was corrupt, unfair and failed to meet the international standards." Also, there's been a crackdown on religious freedoms, and human rights violations are mounting. According to the author: "The rule of the law and the legal system is manipulated by the government." Could Russia be heading back down the road to being regarded as one of the most oppressive countries of the world?

International Affairs by Davis K. Thanjan is one of the most excellent reference books I've encountered to give you facts about the countries of the world and how they relate to the U.S.A. It's not necessarily a book that you will read cover-to-cover, as it deals with tons of facts and figures that may not pertain directly to what you might want to know; but, it does give one a broad general knowledge about international affairs. It's invaluable to discover the numerous ways the different countries of the world interrelate with each other and America. If you are interested in world politics, and the U.S.A.'s role in international affairs, then International Affairs by Davis K. Thanjan is a book I'd highly recommend.

Reviewed by Douglas R. Cobb for http://www.bestsellersworld.com/

The True Story of Catch-22

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In 1944, as the Allied Forces in Italy press toward the War's European resolution, the U.S. 488th Bomb Squadron is keeping doggedly to its mission. The lives of these men of this 488th are following the dictates of the war; there are skills to learn and hone, fears to conquer, and, of course, missions to fly. What they are unaware of is that, as they focus on their daily lives, one of their members is focusing upon them. He is absorbing a different type of information; information that is to serve him well years after the war claims its last son and daughter. Keeping all of his senses alert to his surroundings, 488th bombardier Joseph Heller is absorbing impressions that will later astonish the literary world when he pens a phenomenal novel that explodes across the planet in the 1960's. Welcome, world, to Catch-22!

This richness of memories, of knowledge that he has absorbed fuels his pages. In varying degrees his war-mates morph into wildly factitious characters trapped in the chaos of Catch-22 while deadly missions become... well, still, deadly missions.

While Heller usually chooses to deny similarities between his clever fictional characters and his war-mates, to the men of the 340th Bomb Group, of which Heller's 488th is a part, Heller's offspring are instantly recognizable. In a wild and imaginative frenzy, characters such as the hard-drinking, vengeful, and disillusioned Chief White Half Oat, young, sliced-in-half Kid Sampson, shrieking, frenzied Hungry Joe, and a slew of others blast skyward from the solid roots of their real life counterparts.

It is now more than half of a century since Catch-22's publication. Currently, the surviving men of the 57th Bomb Wing, who comprise the 310th, 319th, 321st, and Heller's 340th Bomb Groups, will still chuckle or grimace as they discuss or deride this book while celebrating at their annual WWII reunions. It is a book that has become an American classic as it pokes huge fun at a circumstance that took a monumental toll on the lives of these men. While they acknowledge and can even respect the profound impact of Catch-22, still, it is at too great an expense of those who steadily have put their lives on the line, as has Joe Heller, mission after mission, for a cause of such magnitude. They find it difficult to embrace this levity even decades after the fact.

Now nearly all the characters upon whom Heller drew for his masterpiece are gone - Cathcart-Chapman, Dreedle-Knapp, Piltchard-Dyer, Daneeka-Marino, Havermyer-Myer, Major Major Major Major- Major Major, Tappman-Cooper, and the rest. All have passed now.

All but one: Wells-Wren Catch-22's sole survivor.

It is Captain George L. Wells, an extraordinary pilot, who weaves throughout a new book by Casemate Publishing, The True Story of Catch-22, is due to be released this Spring, From his first mission, October 26, 1943, to his last on March 19, 1945, George kept a small black mission book, now well-thumbed. Every one of his historic 102 missions is accurately recorded and, with the regularity of almost daily flights, each of these missions will keep step with the pages of this book. True-life George, Bill, Bob and, creator Joe funnel into the loopy, rogue, and ripe-to-bursting factitious personalities of the humble, capable CAPT. WREN, the naked-in-the-ranks Lt. Yossarian, the 'Black-Eye' or 'Feather-in-my-Cap' Col. Cathcart and the arbitrary, unpredictable Gen. Dreedle. Even though Heller's fully developed characters stand solely, solidly, and uniquely on their own merits, still it must be acknowledged that any resemblance to persons living or dead is, in fact, actual.

The True Story of Catch-22 is divided into thirds. Part 1 highlights four solid Air Force officers who Joseph Heller blindsided when he creatively massaged them into four of Catch-22's heavy hitters. But to paraphrase slightly, "Truth is as fascinating as fiction." Part 2 rewards our brain's right side with full-color illustrations of Catch-22's factitious spawn contrasting strongly, on facing pages, with our actual WWII heroes brought to life in previously unpublished photos and accompanied by first person narratives. Lastly, Part 3 goes to the heart of this book as twelve men of the 340th relate twelve true tales. In miniature, here lies the true story.

George speaks for all of these aging warriors, these passing threads of our history, when he says,

"I am surprised at being among the last of these men standing. I am being allowed to bid a respectful and loving farewell to each of these brave, honorable, and dedicated men, these friends and brothers with whom I am forever bonded.

And that, of course, includes you, Joe."

Patricia Chapman Meder is an author and a nationally and internationally exhibiting artist. She combines her artistic skills with her current literary focus centering on a segment of the Second World War. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Colorado with post-graduate studies throughout Europe.

Understanding Flight

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Summary

Aimed at an adult audience, Understanding Flight is an ambitious book. It aims to explain complex aerodynamic principles and technologies that make airplanes possible by using simple diagrams in about 300 pages.

The Good

The technical facts in the book were very well researched. I have to say, I was impressed. Some of the concepts covered are very hard to understand, much less explain clearly in a non-technical fashion. There are lots of technical explanations in the book, and they are all competently written.

Most pages have inset boxes with interesting bits of aviation trivia. A lot of the trivia was new to me, which was a surprise. That's hard to do with an aviation buff like me.

The Bad

The writing and editing is competent but not the best. I caught an occasional typo. Some of the sentences were poorly worded. There were a couple of sentences that I reread several times because I couldn't understand what the author was trying to tell me. In the end I always had to give up.

Some might argue that this is the type of material that one can find for free on Wikipedia. That may be true for a lot of it, but the quality of the illustrations, the consistency in the writing style, and the convenience of a well-organized printed book are hard to beat.

I found the lack of a bibliography a bit bizarre. Given that this is an introductory book to a complex subject, it is very natural to feel a need to look for more in-depth information elsewhere.

The Ugly

The book is humorless. The writing style is somewhat conversational, but it is pretty dry. The boxes with the trivia struck me as an attempt to lighten up the book. Unfortunately, for me the trivia was just a distraction. It rarely had anything to do with the text surrounding it. Rather than enhance the text, most of the time the trivia just made me lose my train of thought.

The author did a great job of researching his facts, but sometimes he fails to connect the dots. For example, he first explains that the larger the diameter of a propeller, the more efficient it can be at producing a given amount of thrust. Then he goes on to talk about multibladed propellers. When he explains why they are less efficient than two-bladed propellers, he fails to make what I thought was an obvious connection. With more blades, the diameter of the propeller has to be less, which leads to lower overall propeller efficiency. I agree with the explanation that he provided, but it struck me as incomplete.

Conclusion

This is a good book. Very well researched, the facts about airplanes are presented clearly. There is lots and lots of good information here. I actually learned a thing or two about airplanes from reading this book. Given how much time I have spent doing my own research, that is hard to do.

I own the second edition of the book. From the description of the changes since the first edition in the book's introduction, it seems to me that grabbing a used copy of the first edition would be a good bargain purchase. In other words, most people would be perfectly happy with the first edition. There are many copies of this earlier edition available for $5 or less. They would make an excellent buy.

http://www.rcadvisor.com/ founder - Home of the best model airplane calculator. Free!

Author of RCadvisor's Model Airplane Design Made Easy and other books.

Host of Ask the RCadvisor in the free weekly http://www.thecrashcast.com/ podcasts.

AMA Scientific Leader and Contest Director #4601.

Book Review: World's Strangest Aircraft

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Summary

A large format book with lots of large pictures and less than 100 pages, this is a quick read. This is what some would call a coffee table book.

Organized into five chapters, each one tackles a broad category of aircraft. For example, chapter three is titled "The Desperate Struggle" and it covers military experimental aircraft from World War II. Chapter four is mostly about tailless designs. The last chapter is a general catch-all chapter covering general oddball aircraft, including helicopters.

An introduction to each chapter sets the stage for the aircraft covered. Then, one paragraph is devoted to each specimen.

The Good

There are a lot of airplanes in this book that I don't remember seeing anywhere else. Specially the first two chapters on early aviation pioneers before World War II, which are filled with wonderfully interesting airplanes. There are many fascinating Russian aircraft throughout the book, but specially in these early chapters.

Generally speaking, the pictures chosen for the book nail their subjects. They are great. Many in full color, all contain lots of details that really bring their subjects to life.

This book is a very easy read. The writing is solid, tying together all the aircraft discussed very nicely.

The Bad

I did not find any typos, but there is a picture caption that is missing its picture. That did not look so good.

Most pictures do not contain enough detail to even begin designing a scale model. That really was not a surprise. There is only one picture per aircraft, and many are side profile ground shots. In other words, there is no information provided on the shape of the wing.

I was already familiar with maybe a third of the aircraft in the book. Even in these cases, the text proved interesting and the pictures were great, bringing these aircraft to life in new ways I had not experienced before.

The Ugly

There are almost no specifications included for the aircraft. Oddly, just about the only specification that one can count on finding for each subject is the horsepower for its engines. Airplane dimensions are almost never given. It seems that the horsepower ratings are used as a stand-in for more detailed aircraft specs. Any other numbers that are provided strictly depends on whether the author found them interesting.

There are no pictures included for many of the aircraft discussed. This was a major disappointment. A paragraph of text without a picture is just not enough to get much of value out of it. I would have preferred it if the author had left out these aircraft entirely and either expanded the text for the other airplanes or included a second picture from a different angle.

Conclusion

This book does a great job of what it set out to do. It is filled with great pictures of lots of very interesting aircraft. The text is a good complement to the pictures and adds interesting details to these aircraft. Just do not expect it to be a great resource for a scale modeler.

Used copies of this book are very inexpensive. I only paid a couple of bucks for mine and it was in great shape. I definitely do not regret making the purchase.

http://www.rcadvisor.com/ founder - Home of the best model airplane calculator. Free!

Author of RCadvisor's Model Airplane Design Made Easy and other books.

Host of Ask the RCadvisor in the free weekly The Crash Cast podcasts.

AMA Scientific Leader and Contest Director #4601.