Learning how to learn, by Barbara Oakley and Terrence J. Sejnowski

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Barbara Oakley, Terrence J. Sejnowski

I don’t know about you, but I have always felt that the only thing I wasn’t taught at school was how to learn. Is it not ironic?

I’m attending an online English course and at some point we were discussing non-fiction books, when the teacher mentioned Barbara Oakley’s MOOC Learning how to learn. I enrolled in the course that very evening and, whereas I found it really interesting, I started the book before finishing the course due to my preference for the written word.

In the book, Barbara explains the techniques you need to master in order to learn better, and she does it in a didactical manner, even making you practice with her own book through reminders in every chapter about scanning through it first, addressing a series of questions at the end to see if you understood the material, etc.

She talks, among other things, about chunks of time, focused and difuse mode, active recall, memory palaces… And she bases their explanations on research about our brain’s way of working and storing new information. The book is intended to be read by young people or together a child with an adult and, therefore, she uses easy-to-understand metaphors so that all readers can understand and apply the techniques to the subjects and materials they need to learn.

But don’t underestimate the quality of this book: if the first sentence of this post resonates with you, you will get invaluable benefit from the reading of Learning how to learn. The techniques won’t be novel to you, I’m sure, but Barbara presents them in a comprehensive form, adding examples to help you get started, and basically compiling them together so you have the feeling of finally knowing everything you need to know about memory and learning.

Now, I am aware that when you read all this you’ll be tempted to make excuses like “I don’t have time for this, I need to study”, and by that you mean coming back to your familiar study routine of opening the book, highlighting half of it in bright yellow, and forgetting most of it the day after. Changing these old patterns is been also a challenge for me who, after 36 years studying, still follows the same unproductive path for learning my subjects at the university, but I’m making an effort now in order improve how I learn. As Barbara says, practice makes permanent, and by implementing the techniques you will end up having more time for other things!

I wish someone had the idea of including a subject on how to learn in schools curriculae when I was a child. It is frustrating when you have to educate yourself years later on the matter; it would have been easier to acquire these habits at a young age but, anyway, this is where we are at the moment. So, please, if you are a person who believes one must learn new things throughout her life, read this book – you won’t be disappointed!

HIIT your limit. Hight Intensity Interval Training for fat loss, cardio, and full body health, by Dr. Len Kravitz

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Len Kravitz

I received a copy of the book to review

Maybe you don’t know this about me, but I worked in a gym as a fitness instructor for almost nine years. Back then, in my classes, I never thought about working smarter, but harder: I was basically focused on getting my clients the sweatiest they could be within an hour of aerobics, steps, cycling, etc. That’s what they demanded, too, feeling their time was worthy by achieving that sweaty goal. Only some guys at the weight-lifting room would try different techniques to improve their muscle gain by controlling their sessions at the gym and their food intake to crazy-to-me levels.

But it turns out if you want certain results, you have to educate yourself and work smarter, right?

Back then I was working out for 20 hours per week. The time I was not exercising, I would eat insane amounts of every food available, including ice-cream, pastries and junk food. I was thin, lean, as hard as a rock. And perpetually exhausted.

That should have told me something, but there are things you can only acknowledge in retrospect. When I left that job, I couldn’t dedicate all that time to exercise anymore, so I did (and still do) what’s recommended -three to five sessions a week- while trying to eat less even though I was −and I am– hungry all the time (spoiler alert: when you stop exercising you are as hungry as before; your stomach is an independent entity altogether).

And, while all the blood and cardiovascular tests show I am an extremely healthy person, I am overweight. And it’s not that I say so; the doctor has told me I should lose some weight. But I can’t. And it’s kind of frustrating when you swim three times per week, run two times per week, go everywhere by foot, eat less than your stomach would like to… and still you don’t look good. The only thing that comes to mind is “maybe I should eat even less or run for 15 minutes more”, coming back to what I said about focusing on quantity instead of quality.

A few months ago, YouTube “recommended” me a HIIT (High Intensity Intervals Training) video. I tried it out and was amazed: I could only do half of it and I felt that my body couldn’t have been worked more intensely in those 20 minutes. That was when the book I am reviewing today (yes, all this was only the prelude of a book review) came into the picture to help me understand this kind of training better and schedule my own routines.

In my opinion, this -and a park- is all the equipment you’ll ever need to get fit

The first half of the books is dedicated to biology and physiology and includes data and research to better understand how the body works during and after exercise, focusing on HIIT in particular and what the benefits of this training are. For those of you who have already tried it, you would have noticed that you can do much more in less time, but it also helps improve cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and cardiorespiratory fitness faster than other kinds of training.

There is a section dedicated to help you stick with your exercise program, for which I really recommend you read James Clear’s Atomic habits in order to better approach a change in your daily routines either to include exercise or any other new habit. There are also frequently asked questions that I found very informative –“Can I reduce the number of fat cells in my body? No.” I’m still crying over this–. And, at the end of the book, there is advice on how to cut calories with small changes – I can’t apply the majority of them, since I hardly ever eat out, I don’t drink sodas or alcohol, nor do I have sugar with my coffee, etc.

Finally, we have the HIIT workouts. I like that the author recommends reducing your normal workouts and add HIIT ones instead of increasing the total amount of weekly exercise, which was what I had in mind when I started reading the book, and had an exponential increase in anxiety because you don’t really know if you will ever find the time to do it all.

Regarding the workouts themselves, I found them very beginner-like, thought to be done only with a certain exercise mode instead of creating different exercises for every interval, which is what I have been trying lately and found more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong – I truly believe they are good workouts, but doing running work and recovery intervals is what I have always called “Interval Training”, but not “High Intensity Interval Training”. I know you can increase the intensity, of course, but I guess I was expecting something more like this.

I think the book is primarily targeted towards people who hasn’t developed a steady habit of exercising, so they can start by including these short but effective workouts in their weekly routines and get fast results. For the rest, the book will make you aware of those intervals you only did from time to time and how it is better to focus more often on them without increasing the total amount of time devoted to exercise, in order to achieve your aimed weight and fitness level.

In any case, it is a matter of adapting your routines. I will sure change more of my steady-state running, swimming and walking workouts to intervals, and I will also keep an eye on including different high intensity exercises a couple of days per week.

And now it’s time to start exercising!

HIIT your limit. High Intensity Interval Training for fat loss, cardio, and full body health
Dr. Len Kravitz
Apollo Publishers
216 pages

Book on Goodreads
Book on Amazon

2018: A year in books

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Cal Newport, Kristin Hannah, Mary Ann Shaffer, Natalie Goldberg, Nicholas Evans, Rosamunde Pilcher

It is that time of the year again.

2018 has been a wonderful year – many of the goals achieved, some wonderful surprises that have come right until the last day of December; I have moved into a flat where I can watch the moonrise, and I have spent time with my loved ones, who are all fine…

But let’s talk about books, because this post was meant to be a summary of my bookish statistics of the year. Ready?

I have read a total amount of 61 books, of which:

• 31 were written by women and 30 by men.
• 30 were in English and 31 in Spanish.
• There were 20 audiobooks (all of them in English), 7 ebooks and 34 regular books.
• 19 were books from the public libraries of my hometown and other places I have visited this year.
• Regarding genre, 31 has been non-fiction books (all of the audiobooks were non-fiction, by the way).
• 10 were comics.
• I’ve read 2 poetry books.
• 4 were re-reads.

I didn’t reach my Goodreads goal of reading 65 books, but it has been a busy year. I should start counting text books for the challenge!

*****

Best books of the year

I rated 15 books with five stars, and I am recommending you the following:

Deep work (Cal Newport): for those who are worried about the time wasted on social media and willing to improve their productivity.

Writing down the bones (Natalie Goldberg): you don’t need to be an aspiring writer to read Goldberg’s inspirational book. I actually read it twice this summer.

Firefly lane (Kristin Hannah): a wonderful story about a friendship, with relatable characters.

The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society (Mary Ann Sheffer): I know I should have read this one long time ago, and now I know you were right: it’s wonderful.

The smoke jumper (Nicholas Evans): I picked this one in the library by chance, and I enjoyed every line.

Under Gemini (Rosamunde Pilcher): it’s not the book, but the author who makes me feel at home in her stories.

*****

I hope you have a very happy New Year with all the reasons to smile.

The wisdom of listening, by Marilyn R. Wilson

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Marilyn R. Wilson

I received a copy of the book thanks to iRead book tours.

The wisdom of listening is one of those books you can pick up and open at any given chapter, read it, get inspired, and go ahead with your day, letting the ideas or the message penetrate slowly. Or you can pick it up, get hooked, and read it from cover to cover in a couple of evenings. You will love it anyway!

I decided to participate in the tour because I felt the title was calling my name. We are so absorbed in our own narratives that we hardly ever listen to what others have to say and, on the other hand, I also find it difficult to be heard sometimes… I guess this is the major problem of the modern era, isn’t it? So that’s why I thought that the book came to me in the right moment, and it has been a very pleasant read.

Marilyn R. Wilson uses her career as a journalist to talk about the people she has interviewed and from whom she has learned precious lessons, but she also talks about valuable messages from films, colleagues and family members; you can learn anywhere, anytime, if only you are aware of what is being offered to you.

In truth, I think the book is meant to be an autobiography in which Marilyn comes to show how and why people have shaped her view of life. She explains she had a difficult time growing up due to the expectations of others regarding what a darling daughter, wife and mother she had to be, trying to behave in a way she wasn’t comfortable with just to please her family, and feeling deep inside that something was wrong with her. With time, she understood that one can only be happy by being herself, and the beginning of a career in journalism, interviewing artists who had to ignore criticism from even their own families to thrive in life, tought her how to find a way of pursuing her true calling.

What I liked the most is that, apart from the topics that the author wants to address in every chapter, you also take the message of receptivity and openness with which one should face everyday events as well as the remarkable ones. And I also enjoyed the cozy tone of the narration, as if you are just *listening* to a friend sharing significant passages of her life.

Follow the tour and enter the giveaway here.
Book on GoodReads
Book on Amazon
Marilyn R. Wilson’s website

 

News of our loved ones, by Abigail DeWitt

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Abigail DeWitt

In this novel we follow the history of a French family in a little village throughout several decades and places. Beginning in 1944, a sixteen-year-old girl is secretly in love with a boy who passes by their house riding his bicycle every day at the same hour and, thanks to her daydreaming about her love for him, the Nazi occupation of the village and the sirens wailing each night disappear from her mind. But in the end the place is bombed by the allies, and the family members will be separated at this particular moment in which lives and dreams are lost forever.

Every chapter is told from the point of view of one character in a certain stage of the family history, and sometimes we come back to this French village in the forties, but other times we find ourselves various decades later in Paris, and it is as if each chapter is an independent short story by itself because the characters won’t star in more than one although, at the end, you feel a cycle coming to an end with the whole history of every family member since that day in 1944.

This way of storytelling has been the most remarkable peculiarity of the book; I was hooked to these little portions of the family history through the eyes of different characters, like the pieces of a puzzle, wondering about this or that one, often recreating past events of one of the sisters through a thought or a conversation decades later into the chapter of another family member.

It could have been an average novel of the Nazi occupation, but the narration makes the story of this family unique, and those glimpses into this sister’s, the aunt’s or that child’s life go further into filling the atmosphere of the family and the time than a linear narration would.

Thanks to Harper books for the galley.

 

The visitors, by Patrick O’Keeffe

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Patrick O'Keeffe

I requested this book a while ago on Netgalley attracted by the promising family secrets that the story seemed to contain between its pages; these novels in which the narration goes back into the past to uncover tragic events that still affect the characters in the present day are the ones I most enjoy, but I guess there is always a exception to the rule, and The visitors is that said exception.

The main character is Jimmy, an Irish young man who now lives in the United States, having left the village where he was born and, not being the type who phones, writes or visits family and friends often enough, is surprised when a man pops in to tell him that one friend from the past wants to see him again. This so-called-friend is the son of Jimmy’s father’s best friend, and a bunch of memories, news from home and calls to his siblings help to unfold the story of the two families from the Irish farms to the modern America.

I could have really enjoyed the story, but I had a hard time getting into it, and I even considered not to finish the book when I was reading the first chapters. Jimmy has been a boring leading character: for the whole story he is basically doing nothing while his siblings and friends suddenly began to open their hearts and reveal family secrets he didn’t know of, which is really surprising taking into account that he is a lonely man who refuses to talk much to his relatives, less to have deep conversations.

Getting into the style, the narration lacks smooth transitions between the present day and Jimmy’s memories of the past, and all the dialogues sounded artificial: there were an excessive repetition of words – Jimmy and a female friend said “my dear” after every one of their sentences – or names – the name of the person they were talking to was also repeated in every sentence – and it made reading the conversations annoying, to say the least.

Regarding the plot, it was quite disappointing as well; basically, in Jimmy’s father’s generation a man and a woman fall in love but they marry other people and keep thinking about each other forever, and in Jimmy’s generation the same happened twice. Full stop. The events that the author includes surrounding these romances don’t really add depth to the story, neither do they change anything in the state of Jimmy’s affairs; they just make the book longer, which it is not considered a positive feature so far…

So, as you should know by now, I can’t recommend it. This was one of those books I force myself into finishing just because I have requested them, and all I wanted was to read it as soon as possible in order to start a more pleasant read.

Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah

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Kristin Hannah

I borrowed Firefly Lane from the library of the coastal village where I spend my summer holidays – this has become a kind of tradition: one of the first things I do when I arrive is go to the library and spend an hour or more carefully picking my summer reads, as if I hadn’t already taken over three books from home! The funny thing is that I end up reading the ones from the library instead of my eternal to-be-read pile of books (and I regret nothing).

I hadn’t read any book written by Kristin Hannah before though, of course, I knew the author due to the popularity of The nightingale, and I had seen Firefly Lane a lot last year when it was published in Spanish, but I didn’t remember what it was about, so all of a sudden I was in need for a totally unknown-to-me story and knew this would be perfect. So I came home the first evening with the book, still sand in my hair from the beach, and started reading. An hour later, it was becoming one of the most delightful books read this year.

Firefly Lane is the name of the street where two teenage girls, Tully and Kate, first meet in 1974, when the former moves in with her mother. Tully is pretty, outgoing and independent, and Kate has no friends other than her books but has something that Tully doesn’t: a loving family that is always there for her. The two of them become best friends and the story follows these girls, first doing the same things in school and college, and then taking separated paths when they mature enough to know what their passion is.

As every relationship, Tully and Kate’s has its ups and downs, but they manage to stay together as they go through jobs, disappointments and romances. The author introduces us to the world of television journalism from Tully’s hand, so we witness how satisfying this job is for the woman in some regards – the fame, the money, the thrill of creativity – but not enough to fulfill her because she can’t keep close and stable relationships, let alone think of having her own family. On the contrary, Kate will eventually become a full-time housewife and mother and, you guess it, she is always stressed with her kids’ schedules and can’t stop thinking she hasn’t done anything special with her life. One can’t help but longing for what the other owns, not knowing how tough both their paths are.

I particularly enjoyed how the author makes you fall for Tully, as she is so vital and fascinating one just can’t get enough of her whereabouts, yet you empathize most with Kate because her life and background is as the average person’s, so you share her points of view and stand with her when something goes wrong. But, in the end, the core of the story is their loving friendship and the reader is urged to support the both of them unconditionally.

After finishing the book last Sunday, do you want to know what I did? I spent an entire hour talking to my best friend on the phone. I’m the kind of person who’d never do something like that because I always think the other person must be busy with other things more important than listening to my miseries, but recently I’ve been told that I should take the initiative and take care of my bonds to other people and, to my surprise, it has not been hard at all! This is one of those touching books that opens your heart and makes you tell your loved ones how much you appreciate them.

21 days to happiness, by Ingrid Kelada

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Ingrid Kelada

I received this book in exchange for a honest review
thanks to iRead Book Tours.

I would like to start this review by saying that Ingrid Kelada, the author, is a psychologist and happiness expert (how well it sounds, a happiness expert!) and she has gathered all the information available in research studies about what makes people live a happier life, and put it together in simple, fun and approachable chapters to try every “method”, one at a time.

In the last years I have become an avid reader of non-fiction books, especially about learning and productivity, and I have to say that I have read a number of the authors Ingrid mentions in her book and I have come across all the topics discussed at one time or another, but I had never related all these behaviours to happiness itself – perhaps to wellbeing and health, but it had never occurred that this is a way which also leds to happiness, and of course it does!

That being said, I don’t think many of the readers that are usually keen of books about these topics will find something new in 21 days to happiness, but the appeal of this particular book comes from the way the tips are presented: each chapter talks about one topic (body language, time, relationships, optimism, etc.) and offers data and research about how happiness is affected by them, ways one can introduce them in your everyday life, tips to start doing it right now, and a brief comment about how the author actually does it to increase her own happiness. She includes links to Youtuve videos and TED talks about the topic and, at the end of the chapters there are also questionnaires, so you can test yourself about your thoughts on implementing this new behaviour in your life, and see if it works for you. It really makes the read enjoyable and addictive, and actually makes you “do” something to implement what has been discussed.

The thing is I have found that I do most of the things Ingrid recommends every day and, while I understand the value of the other stuff, I still haven’t worked out the way some things could “do good” to me. For instance, I see Ingrid is an outgoing woman who talks about the importance of relationships with others, suggesting one can join clubs or start conversations with people in your neighbourhood – there’s no way I can do such thing without dying from anxiety! She also talks about the joy of cooking a healthy meal, and here is one person that only finds joy in cooking a lot of food, knowing I won’t have to cook again in many days. Maybe I should try other approaches to these contingencies (this is also taught in the book), but I consider myself a happy person anyway!

Well, this is a book you could talk about forever, analyzing yourself and trying out what Ingrid suggests. As I said, I have been practising many of these suggestions throughout the years, and now I’m working on some of the new-to-me tips, like “happy body language” and the chunks of time when working. I’m even in the mood to try again the cooking stuff! So yes, this is a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to improve their approach to the days ahead.

Book on Goodreads
Book on Amazon
www.21daystohappiness.com

The child finder, by Rene Denfeld

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Rene Denfeld

I received the book from the publisher.

It is fascinating when an author decides to narrate a story with an uncomfortable central theme, and yet she does it with such a tenderness that goes behind good and evil, so you are no longer a judge of characters, but just an observer; someone who watches and understands. That is what Rene Denfeld made me experience with The enchanted, and now again with The child finder.

This is an unconventional story about a search. Madison, a five-year-old girl, vanished in a snowy forest in Oregon three years ago. Nobody found neither a trail nor a corpse, but it’s obvious that the girl couldn’t have survived in the forest alone for that long so, after a time, hopes drowned – except for her parents, of course, whose latest and more desperate attempt to finally find out what happened to Madison is Naomi, our main character. Naomi is an expert in findind missing children, but has trouble finding what is missing in her own life. Her last search starts but, as it goes, another tale begins: one about a girl who was born in the snow and now lives in the depths of the forest.

Naomi doesn’t search the woods as much as the people who live around because she knows that the key to find Madison is hidden in the memories of someone out there. And with every step she takes among the trees, her own missing pieces began to take shape.

The author narrates the rawest events in such a delicate way that enraptures the reader. There are searchs with a disheartening end and there are others whose happy outcome is shaded by the paralell story between the loss and the finding, but even to the darkest characters does the author offer hope and understanding in her unique tales. Needless to say, I loved the book.

The child finder
Rene Denfeld
274 pages
Published by Harper
Book on GoodReads

 

In the midst of winter, by Isabel Allende

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Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende is one of the authors whose books have always had a place at my parents’ library, and I actually think they have all of her titles, so this was one of the first authors I read when I began reading adult books, but somehow I stopped reading her for so many years until now, and I have found the experience very pleasant for I have enjoyed her expressions and choices of words in this unique Latin American way, so colourful and fancy, far from our “boring” Spanish words.

I guess English-speaking people reading translations can’t experience this, as well as I read translations from authors from all over the world that seem to have been written by a person born in Madrid, but I wanted to share the experience of reading from authors whose language looks identical to your own, but yet it’s so different that it surprises you in every page.

Now, let’s talk about the book.

We are in Brooklyn in a particularly terrifying snowstorm, when Richard Bowmaster, a university professor in his sixties, has a little accident when his car hits another vehicle driven by Evelyn, a young Guatemalan girl who later seeks Richard for help because not only has she taken the car without her employers’ permission, but there is also a corpse in her car trunk. Richard, in turn, calls her unusual tenant Lucía, a resolute Chilean lady who works with him at the university and decides that Evelyn is in danger of deportation for being undocumented, so the three of them have to get rid of the corpse and protect the girl.

Of course, nothing is what it seems, and in their journey the author tells us their background stories, talking about the recent history of Chile and Guatemala, as well as the cultural gap between Richard and his Brazilian wife, being Evelyn’s the most emotional one. The girl left her country running away from violence to start a journey that for many people ends up in death, prison or as a sexual slave, so you realize how these people risk everything they have towards a very uncertain future.

However, the book is not only a tragic story; the journey that brings together these three strangers is kind of crazy, and the ideas and comments from Lucía makes the story hilarious, so in the end you see it becomes a story of hope, joy and second changes at any age.

It may not be the best book by Isabel Allende, but I found it pleasant, with the right amount of drama and humor, and three characters who makes you want to keep reading.

In the midst of winter
Isabel Allende
Atria Books
Publishing date: 31st of October 2017.