Never to Old to Learn

Book Review – More Than Just A Pretty Space by Reiko Gomez

Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢

Storyline: ★★★

Writing Style: ★★★★

Personal Growth: ★★★.5

Enjoyment: ★★★★

“The reason you’re setting up your space and aligning your thoughts is to make yourself ready to receive your dream, to allow it to effortlessly flow into…

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Book Review – Leaving by Kanchan Bhaskar

Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢

Storyline: ★★★★

Writing Style: ★★★★

Character Development: ★★★★

Enjoyment: ★★★★★

“You have played enough games with me. You thought you won in your game every time I returned to you, but each time I was back, I…

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Book Review – Still on Fire by Renee Linnell

Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

Storyline: ★★★★.5

Writing Style: ★★★★.5

Personal Growth: ★★★★★

Enjoyment: ★★★★★

“‘Can you dance?’ . . . ‘If you cannot dance,’ the Elder said, ‘how can you heal?’”

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Book Review – Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir

Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢 Storyline: Writing Style: Character Development: Enjoyment: “this writing thing/was some kind of magic trick/I didn’t yet understand, except for this:/Magicians rarely share/their secrets.” Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes The Story: Growing up with a mother suffering from…

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Book Review – Language Families of the World

Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢 Storyline: Writing Style: Character Development: World-building: “This language is like a honey badger. This language just don’t care. This language will kick your booty.” Language Families of the World by John McWhorter The Story: This is a…

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Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night—and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this memoir, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards—ordinary and extraordinary—of her life.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Language, in its seemingly infinite varieties, tells us who we are and where we come from. Many linguists believe that all of the world’s languages - over 7,000 currently - emerged from a single prehistoric source. While experts have not yet been able to reproduce this proto-language, most of the world’s current languages can be traced to various language families that have branched and divided, spreading across the globe with migrating humans and evolving over time. The ability to communicate with the spoken word is so prevelant that we have yet to discover a civilization that does not speak. The fitful preservation of human remains throughout history has made tracing the ultimate origin of sophisticated human cultures difficult, but it is assumed that language is at least 300,000 years old. With so much time comes immense change - including the development of the written word. There’s no doubt that over centuries, numerous languages have been born, thrived, and died. So how did we get here, and how do we trace the many language branches back to the root? In Language Families of the World, Professor John McWhorter of Columbia University takes you back through time and around the world, following the linguistic trails left by generations of humans that lead back to the beginnings of language. Utilizing historical theories and cutting-edge research, these 34 astonishing lectures will introduce you to the major language families of the world and their many offspring, including a variety of languages that are no longer spoken but provide vital links between past and present.

Rating: 4 out of 5.