It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:20 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 760 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... 26  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:13 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:35 pm
Posts: 17873
Location: Warming up on 1st tee box
pizza_Place: Kaisers
denisdman wrote:
T-Bone wrote:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline for a long Labor Day weekend. Being made into a major motion picture for 2018 release by Steven Spielberg.


After the first 50 pages, I couldn't put it down. The dialogue was a bit cheesy, but the story was great.



I really enjoyed the hell out of it, very easy read. I really think my 14yr old stepson would like it but I doubt he will have time to read a book for fun
with school back in. I'll hold onto it for him in case he wants to check it out during a break or something. Kind of got the reading bug again and went
out to see what some of the more popular or highly rated books from the 21st century were and pulled the trigger on a couple of them on Amazon.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Pretty sure the Sawtelle book was an Oprah book club one about ten years ago but always sounded interesting to me.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:17 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:50 am
Posts: 11175
Location: Schaumburg
pizza_Place: Palermo's
Tad Queasy wrote:
Drunk Squirrel wrote:
Devil was good. I started Garden of Beasts but I'm thinking I lost the book so I stopped reading it. Picked up Dead Wake the other day and I know my Wife liked the one on the Galveston Hurricane.

Similar from a different Author is Close To Shore about the shark attacks that in part inspired Jaws. Brother in law gave me that one once on vacation.


Dead Wake is very good.

I started reading both Britt-Marie Was Here and Beartown by Fredrik Backman.


Beartown was very good. It's about hockey and rape, so many here should find it interesting.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:23 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
denisdman wrote:
Hmm, just downloaded this one for my upcoming trip. Sounds compelling. $2.99 on Amazon for Kindle.


The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way Kindle Edition

by Amanda Ripley (Author)


I just finished this book. There is no secret sauce or major bullet. But the big takeaways I got from this book are:

1) The average dollar spent per student is not a good indicator of success. There is a baseline amount that needs to be spent, but above that the results are no better.
2) Public vs private is not a great indicator either. Yeah I said it. Both ways can work, but it comes down to other factors.
3) High standards are essential. Kids are able to achieve way beyond what most parents believe is possible. We shelter them way too much and do not expose them to rigorous curriculum.
4) Teachers need to be highly trained in much the same way we do with doctors. That means it has to be a tougher profession to enter. They also need long apprenticeships with in class learning and tough evaluations before they ever enter the classroom. Teachers make the biggest difference. In the U.S, it is one of the easiest professions to enter.
5) Class size does not matter much. Better teachers can and do handle larger class sizes without an issue.

The Finland model is the best example of what could work in the U.S. They still have strong unions, so no need to dump those. However, it is very difficult to become a teacher. As such, they are held in very high regard because everyone knows how challenging it was to take that career path.

3&4 are what we need to do. 1, 2 & 5 are just the things found studies outlined in the book.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:31 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:19 am
Posts: 23917
pizza_Place: Jimmy's Place
yeah, #5 just made the entire book questionable. class size is a huge issue. over 24 or so the mayhem rises exponentially and there is no way in hell you are able to give the lesser-abled kids the additional help they need. you start acting like Saddam Hussein just to maintain any kind of order.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:50 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
Hatchetman wrote:
yeah, #5 just made the entire book questionable. class size is a huge issue. over 24 or so the mayhem rises exponentially and there is no way in hell you are able to give the lesser-abled kids the additional help they need. you start acting like Saddam Hussein just to maintain any kind of order.


Hatchet, the book is based on research of what successful systems do vs failing ones. It was shown that class size doesn't matter much at all. If you have well trained teachers like in Finland, they are able to handle much larger class sizes with no issue. Plus the money goes a lot further, and you can pay these highly trained teachers more money.

I encourage you to read the book and decide for yourself.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:54 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:19 am
Posts: 23917
pizza_Place: Jimmy's Place
I've taught here in the US in urban and rural schools. Not in Finland. This is not Finland.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:56 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
Hatchetman wrote:
I've taught here in the US in urban and rural schools. Not in Finland. This is not Finland.


And Finland has the highest scores in PISA exams, and their improvement has come in a short time period. We spend much more money per student than Finland. They have better teachers and higher standards. You teach in a country with terribly mediocre scores and wasted tax dollars.

Class size:

"The number of instructors per 1,000 students has more than doubled since 1960, from 40 to 85.

Gates contends that the K-12 education industry has been steered for five decades by a misguided belief that the way to higher performance is smaller classes. Many states pursued class-size reduction initiatives in the 1990s. California, an example I covered as a reporter, reduced average class size from 30 to 20 in kindergarten through grade 3 in the mid-1990s, at a cost of over $1.5 billion a year.

Over the years, though, the research community has more or less confirmed that class-size reduction doesn't yield significant performance gains. The most expensive education reform is among the least effective.

Gates proposes ending class-size reduction experiments, lifting caps on class size and offering good teachers financial incentives to teach more students."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2011/02/bill_gates_talks_about_teacher.html

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:00 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:19 am
Posts: 23917
pizza_Place: Jimmy's Place
If you took Mr.Finn and put him in a High School Class at Proviso East he wouldn't last 5 minutes before he left the country in tears.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:03 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
Hatchetman wrote:
If you took Mr.Finn and put him in a High School Class at Proviso East he wouldn't last 5 minutes before he left the country in tears.


And why is it ok for Near West suburban kids to be in that environment?

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:09 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:19 am
Posts: 23917
pizza_Place: Jimmy's Place
denisdman wrote:
Hatchetman wrote:
If you took Mr.Finn and put him in a High School Class at Proviso East he wouldn't last 5 minutes before he left the country in tears.


And why is it ok for Near West suburban kids to be in that environment?


Because our society is one that distains respect for authority, order, education, achievement, commonality, hard work, etc.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:14 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
Hatchetman wrote:
denisdman wrote:
Hatchetman wrote:
If you took Mr.Finn and put him in a High School Class at Proviso East he wouldn't last 5 minutes before he left the country in tears.


And why is it ok for Near West suburban kids to be in that environment?


Because our society is one that distains respect for authority, order, education, achievement, commonality, hard work, etc.


Well amen to that.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 10:04 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:33 pm
Posts: 12078
pizza_Place: Vito and Nick's
Image

My seventh-grader is reading this to my fourth-grader. Funny little book.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:17 pm 
Offline

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:46 pm
Posts: 32891
pizza_Place: Gioacchino's
Any suggestions for an autobiography appropriate for a 10 year old girl? Entertaining, funny, and/or interesting are huge pluses. My son read Bobby Orr's for his book report a few years ago and it was the most boring thing on the planet. I should have let him read Roenick's f-bombs and all. TIA


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:32 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:33 pm
Posts: 12078
pizza_Place: Vito and Nick's
Spaulding wrote:
Any suggestions for an autobiography appropriate for a 10 year old girl? Entertaining, funny, and/or interesting are huge pluses. My son read Bobby Orr's for his book report a few years ago and it was the most boring thing on the planet. I should have let him read Roenick's f-bombs and all. TIA

El Deafo. It's a graphic novel, so I'm not sure that that's ok.

I guess interestingness depends on the kid.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:34 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:45 am
Posts: 15884
pizza_Place: Salerno's
'Throw Like A Girl' Finch/Killion


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:36 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:16 am
Posts: 20082
pizza_Place: Aurelios
Started the Gentleman Bastards series. Book 1 was good, looking forward to book 2.

_________________
drinky wrote:
If you hate Laurence, then don't listen - don't comment. When he co-hosts the B&B show, take that day off ... listen to an old podcast of a Bernstein solo show and jerk off all day.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:43 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:16 pm
Posts: 81627
denisdman wrote:
Hatchetman wrote:
denisdman wrote:
Hatchetman wrote:
If you took Mr.Finn and put him in a High School Class at Proviso East he wouldn't last 5 minutes before he left the country in tears.


And why is it ok for Near West suburban kids to be in that environment?


Because our society is one that distains respect for authority, order, education, achievement, commonality, hard work, etc.


Well amen to that.

Our society is one that disdains respect for hard work and acheivement?


I disagree.


Last edited by rogers park bryan on Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:43 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:16 pm
Posts: 81627
Hussra wrote:
'Throw Like A Girl' Finch/Killion

My daughter liked that one.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:51 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:19 am
Posts: 23917
pizza_Place: Jimmy's Place
rogers park bryan wrote:
[
Our society is disdains respect for hard work and acheivment?


I disagree.



1. props for spelling disdains correctly. :lol:
2. Kids who are earnest about education and work extra hard in school are outcasts. where'd you do your schoolin?

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:54 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:16 pm
Posts: 81627
Hatchetman wrote:
rogers park bryan wrote:
[
Our society is disdains respect for hard work and acheivment?


I disagree.



1. props for spelling disdains correctly. :lol:
2. Kids who are earnest about education and work extra hard in school are outcasts. where'd you do your schoolin?

It didn't sound like you were limiting that to schools. If so, that's a bit more believable. I think adults all up and down the spectrum value hard work.


But I thought the nerdy smart kid is kind of a thing of the past, now.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:17 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:03 pm
Posts: 4320
Location: Lake Wynonah, PA
pizza_Place: Il-Forno in Deerfield
Hank Scorpio wrote:
Started the Gentleman Bastards series. Book 1 was good, looking forward to book 2.

They are pretty good. I am reading the Riyria books now. The first trilogy (Riyria Revelations) is really good.

_________________
Krazy Ivan wrote:
Congrats on being better than me, Psycory.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:05 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 3:04 pm
Posts: 36
pizza_Place: My stomach
Can't put this down

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 9:47 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:33 pm
Posts: 12078
pizza_Place: Vito and Nick's
I think I reviewed this on here before, but I'm reading it again on my new (and awesome) phone: October 1964 by David Halberstam.

Yanks vs. Cards. It's a fun read, very anecdote-y. Not much mention of the actual World Series (30 pages) or even the amazing Phillies collapse, but still fun to read again.

Book begins with a short chapter on Lou Brock as an unhappy (and worried) Cub.

Interesting how cheap the Yankees were and how much of a mess the Cards were in the 1950s. When Busch bought the team, he knew nothing about baseball. Someone else almost bought the team and moved them to Milwaukee.

Such a different culture (in baseball and America).


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:33 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:33 pm
Posts: 12078
pizza_Place: Vito and Nick's
Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball--and America--Forever, by Tim Wendel.

Read the first couple of chapters of this. What an interesting subject--but a poor book. I thought I read it before, but I must not have. It's poorly written and not in depth about anything. If anyone has read it, and it gets better, let me know.

Kurt Cobain would have been one year old in 1968.

ETA: This book blows.


Last edited by tommy on Fri Dec 22, 2017 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:51 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
Just started a book on the Black Hand. Never heard of these guys. If you like early 20th Century American history, gangs, and Italians, wow this is your book. I am reading it and thinking what a great NetFlix series it would make.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:12 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:54 pm
Posts: 13318
pizza_Place: Home Run Inn
denisdman wrote:
Just started a book on the Black Hand. Never heard of these guys. If you like early 20th Century American history, gangs, and Italians, wow this is your book. I am reading it and thinking what a great NetFlix series it would make.


Name of book and author?

_________________
Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:18 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:55 pm
Posts: 31935
Location: Wrigley
pizza_Place: Warren Buffet of Cock
FrankDrebin wrote:
denisdman wrote:
Just started a book on the Black Hand. Never heard of these guys. If you like early 20th Century American history, gangs, and Italians, wow this is your book. I am reading it and thinking what a great NetFlix series it would make.


Name of book and author?


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971759-the-black-hand


And I just noticed there is a DiCaprio movie on it coming ‘18. When you read it, you will see how easily this could be a great movie.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:30 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:29 pm
Posts: 38014
pizza_Place: Lou Malnatis
Just finished World Without End by Ken Follett.

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:13 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:10 pm
Posts: 38609
Location: "Across 110th Street"
formerlyknownas wrote:
One L by Scott Turow. It's a memoir of his first year at Harvard Law. Pretty good book, but kind of the same thing as the original film The Paper Chase.


It actually was required reading almost 30 years ago

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Books
PostPosted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:29 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:29 am
Posts: 64436
Location: Darkside Estates
pizza_Place: A cat got an online degree.
My wife got me Dr. Sleep for Christmas.

I'm excited to read it.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014
bigfan wrote:
Many that is true, but an incomplete statement.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 760 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... 26  Next

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group