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PIFM - Chat/Banter/Review Your June 2018 Read
Agnieszka wrote: "I envy all you snow troubled guys. Since I moved from South-Germany (small town) into a big city in Central Germany I rarely see snow at all and even if it sometime snows during the night it lasts ..."I guess you would have enjoyed Canada this year. It's April for heaven's sake...and we just had a huge ice storm. The pictures from the Niagara Region are astounding.
one of the jokes floating around on FaceBook is.."its not April 14th, its really January the 96th"
It feels like we are going to go straight from Winter into Summer with no moderate Spring. Breaking all kinds of historical low temperature records...also lots of flooding because we get dumped on but then we hare having a day or two where the temperature rises and everything melts very quickly, overwhelming our creek beds and waterways....it's been interesting.
Angie wrote: "Patricia wrote: "It is only 64 here in So. California. Had to put a sweat shirt on to work in the garden. I freeze if it fall below 70."You'll find this funny then, when it is in the 30's or 40's..."
I would be so happy if we had anything above freezing right now...wish I was in California with you...our family would be the pasty white people rocking shorts and joyously tipping our faces to the sun. So funny how we all get acclimatize to where we live. By August here people will be begging for cooler weather...Canadian weather reactions always comes with a good bout of amnesia between the seasons.
I can't remember if we have discussed this before, but do you guys have any favorite audiobooks you recommend? My commute is about to get longer so I think I am going to start getting into them more. I would appreciate any input!
Christine - Do you realize you have posted twice in the June Selections thread? In the first post you voted for "Shadow Dance" and in the second you have voted for "Snuff the Magic Dragon". Did you mean to change your vote??
We usually just go back and edit our first post. Though I don't know if you can do that with the mobile app. So you wish to keep your vote with Shadow Dance?
No I thought you had to do it again and no I didn’t change my vote But I deleted my second vote and i’m Sorry about that
Waiting for votes from: both Dana's, Christine, Agnieszka, Patricia, Melanie and everyone else who hasn't voted yet for June.
I definitely won't be doing anything for June until May gets here. I can't keep tracked of that far ahead. So I will post and vote around the 10th of May.
Agnieszka wrote: "Patricia wrote: "It is only 64 here in So. California. Had to put a sweat shirt on to work in the garden. I freeze if it fall below 70."LOL - what would you only do if you had to move to Nothern ..."
Oh my...Im here in Canada and my kids were begging to wear shorts last week because we hit 5 degrees above freezing. I swear our whole town was out rejoicing...we had BBQ and neighbours were all out raking and walking. It’s been an unseasonably cold spring and we are ready for the sun. Today back to jackets and turning on the fireplace. Mother Nature has had her fun with us this year. The poor farmers! I’m starting to worry about their growing season.
Amber wrote: "Been pretty cold and wet here, too, Melanie."Hi Amber...I think my vote for June is up now. Sorry, I haven’t been doing PIFM for a little while and between Mother Nature gifting us with winter weather and PIFM being wonderfully organized with May and June I think I fell a bit behind. On the boring topic of cold weather.....we are supposed to hit a high of Plus 17 today...almost time to hit the beach...ha ha!
We are actually suppose to get a little rain tomorrow. Naturally, it happens to be a day I will be calling on a couple of my customers. It rains so seldom that I worry about the condition of my wipers.
Dana wrote: "I can't remember if we have discussed this before, but do you guys have any favorite audiobooks you recommend? My commute is about to get longer so I think I am going to start getting into them mor..."If you speak French I listened to Nacht im Central Park=Central Park twice and loved it very much - actually I'm loving everything by Guillaume Musso though many of his books are not translated into English (yet)
I'm currently listening to Das Mädchen aus BrooklynLa fille de Brooklyn another great one not translated (yet). It's so strange his books were translated into Polish, Arabic even Hebrew but not English.
If I spoke French you say. I took it in High School and forgotten most of is. How do you stay current with your languages? And do you get them mixed up? I'm so in awe of your abilities!!
Kirsten wrote: "Well, I took Spanish and I stayed current by working in a 7-11."That's so cool, it would help if I had such a possibility as well :-)
Perri wrote: "If I spoke French you say. I took it in High School and forgotten most of is. How do you stay current with your languages? And do you get them mixed up? I'm so in awe of your abilities!!"
With French, Spanish and Russian it was the same for me :-( I still hope to learn them sometime in future again but I'm no more sure it will ever happen.
Since I live in Germany it's pretty easy I have regular contact to the language and most of my library books are in German anyway. English got much better since I joined GR and read mostly English books and I'm so happy about it. I use each chance I get to speak English and realised it's much more difficult than reading only *grins*
Polish is right now the language I have the most issues with. I speak it too seldom and notice more and more how much I struggle to find words I need and that's why I started last year my own personal challenge to read at least 12 Polish books per year. I prefer originals but due to limited access read Polish translations as well. Recently I found out my father has a friend he's lending books from and I can read them as well (mostly originals) and since he has the Polish edition of the Fifty Shades series by E.L. James I asked him to borrow them when he finishes even if these are books I usually wouldn't read.
I wasn't listening to the Musso books in French (in case you understood it that way) - I just wan't sure which part of Canada Dana is from and I'm aware some of them are francophone that's why I recommenden them.
Kirsten I think you are the one who loves audiobooks and think you can recommend which are well made. I tried a few month ago to listen to Enigma (German edition from my library) and that was the worst ever audio I tried. The guy read the book in such a monotone and borring way I had to give up in less than 1 minute
If it's anything like this video,Perri, it's gonna be a laugh riot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juu-7... Re: The Thug Notes book you voted for.
Agnieszka, so you mostly learned from living in the country and interacting online? Did you also take languages in school? They offer typically Spanish, French, and German in U.S. schools, but so few of us are fluent. I wonder whyAmber, maybe I should just try to catch those videos. I know I'll never read a lot of those classics. I like the summary, but the evaluation was best. Now I know more than the story.
I have multiple Thug Notes vids on my YouTube playlists, Perri. But the one for Dracula was just one of three in a row that I decided to put in my Halloween playlist.Here's one of the other vids...on my Christmas playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPJL2... It's on that list because Father Christmas/Santa Claus is a character.
Amber wrote: "I have multiple Thug Notes vids on my YouTube playlists, Perri. But the one for Dracula was just one of three in a row that I decided to put in my Halloween playlist.Here's one of the other vids...."
It's from The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe haha "Lil Lucy just scope the crib and decide to hop up in a bruthu's wardrobe"
Agnieszka wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "Well, I took Spanish and I stayed current by working in a 7-11."That's so cool, it would help if I had such a possibility as well :-)
Perri wrote: "If I spoke French you say. I t..."
I love audiobooks. But you have to be careful. The older ones can be really hard to pay attention to. Some of the more recent ones are more like performances than narration.
Kirsten, I like how you have .5 in your votes. Agnieszka voted for all four of my books, so I'll need to add .25 :)
Ok,I put my list up and also voted on everyone's selections.
My list this time is a click happy list. When I am just browsing what everyone is reading and reviewing and click, click, click on everything that looks good.
That's a good idea Vicki! I'm a little late but mines up now too. I was going to pick some nice summer reads but I can't stay away from the thrillers right now :)
Perri wrote: "Kirsten, I like how you have .5 in your votes. Agnieszka voted for all four of my books, so I'll need to add .25 :)"Great idea, though I fear not very helpful :-) I really hope it will be easier in about two week and I'm a little bit sorry for all the aditional work I made for you ;-)
Perri wrote: "Agnieszka, so you mostly learned from living in the country and interacting online? Did you also take languages in school? They offer typically Spanish, French, and German in U.S. schools, but so f..."
Sorry I'm answering so late had again some hard days.
Yes you're mostly correct. That was that way but I'm sure there was also some preference/necessity playing into it. It was very helpful with German my sister and I got into a full time German (language) school. The first half-year we had 20-24 hours German per week and after a few weeks my teacher noticed I'm talented with languages and was transfered into the advanced class. It was difficult the first few weeks but in the end the perfect solution for me.
With English it was a language I loved before I learned the first word and wanted to learn in Poland (in my last year there when it was possible for the first time but my parents didn't allow it - they waned me to learn German and that was something I didn't want) when we moved to south Germany I had a great tutor but was still far from fluent. Two years later I started to learn French (requirement for gaining the kind of degree I was able to study). In the first year we had such a great teacher I learned really much but than we got another one and when I left school I forgot almost everything I learned during the first year :-(
Since I loved numbers and languages and had no real idea what I want do with my life I decided to study International Business Administration. I had two options Francophone or Far East studies. I was somehow too lasy to learn Chines (Mandarin) so went for the French plus a second language option. That was more than risky and if not for my best friend I would've tanked it but somehow I survived the first semester and later we had term papers instead of exams so I was able to wing it (with some help). My second language in the first two semesters was Spanish (and I really liked it) but some of the guys in our class made some really nasty stuff to the teacher and she got pretty nasty to us (which menat in general rather low grades) so I decided to change to Russian (which I learned several years in Poland) for the second year and managed somehow (I still hate this language). So despite my attempts I never learned French very well (I still love this language and hope to learn it sometime again) and forgot almost everything I ever learned in Spanish and Russian.
Later when the German publisher of my (than) favorite author's books announced my beloved series won't be translated into German I decided to start reading English. In the beginning it was really hard (the first two or three years) but after that it got much easier and when I discovered GR and it's group options I started to comunicate in English as well and since than my skilles improved very much.
Wow...
is a run away hit with voters this month as was
last month. I am trying to be disciplined with all the books I own by picking 5 at a time and sticking with them until they are read. Thank you PIFM friends for a fun way to choose and thank you Amber for inadvertently giving me the idea to be tenacious. I tend to not choose this way and I noticed you often have repeats up ...seemed like a very smart way to clear a list.
Agnieszka, I love how serious you take your book selections. The split votes don't worry me at all, take your time:) Thanks for all the language acquiring information. What I learned is that some people have a knack for it, the way some people are gifted with numbers or music. I think French is m fav language-it's so musical to the ear. I live close to Canada and used to tune my radio alarm to a French speaking station just because it was so nice to wake up to.Melanie, another bonus is a book I vote for eventually wins :)
Agnieszka wrote: "Perri wrote: "Kirsten, I like how you have .5 in your votes. Agnieszka voted for all four of my books, so I'll need to add .25 :)"Great idea, though I fear not very helpful :-) I really hope it w..."
That's an amazing chronicle of near-misses, Agnieszka. Like learning the piano, languages need practise or they will be forgotten - especially when one gets older like me. But, you got there in the end; English. It has enough content to keep you happy forever. And you are obviously very happy there now.
Books mentioned in this topic
White Lies (other topics)Burning Bright (other topics)
Under a Dark Summer Sky (other topics)
Triptych (other topics)
Broken (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Nicholas Petrie (other topics)Dean Koontz (other topics)
Dean Koontz (other topics)
Dean Koontz (other topics)
E.L. James (other topics)
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Yes sadly there has been a ton of accidents this year, probably more than usual with the prolonged winter! Ah well, you are right Agnieszka, I can't imagine living in those places.