Help Child Deal with Divorce #2 Annabel, As People Grow They Change

Dear Annabel,

            As people grow, they change. It’s a natural part of life. The same thing happens to some marriages. Your mom and dad change as they grow and perhaps the change doesn’t suit one or both of your parents in the marriage. You know, the same things happened in many friendships – I have already experienced it and you will soon.

            It happened to me. I have a friend in secondary school. We were best friends until we both went to further our studies in different universities. Once awhile we met up and catch up with one another stories. As time goes by, we both started liking different things and hanging out with different people. After 3 years we had both changed so much that we had nothing in common anymore and our friendship ended. Should we have stayed friends because we used to like each other? I don’t think so.

            You know Annabel, after couple being married for a while, some moms and dads even grow closer while others grow further apart. They stop caring. They don’t listen to one another anymore. They yell and fight. They are frustrated and unhappy. Should they stay together just because they used to be in love? Probably not. Commitment, faithfulness, and trust should be established early in the marriage, if not they will easily break. This is the fall of both parents.

Some parents who grow apart stay married because they don’t want to upset their children. You know what? Researchers found that children living with unhappily married parents are often more stressed and less happy than children whose parents are successfully divorced. Maybe amidst this difficulties, dear Annabel, this thing happened to you for your own good. Your mom and dad probably not happy with each other and if they were to continue you won’t be happy either.

   

Uncle admits that this divorce thing is not easy. Parents feel sad. Kids feel awful. Grandparents and siblings don’t know what to do. Friends from both parents don’t know whose side to take. It’s hard. That is why uncle is very proud of you for taking this matter responsively. Believe me, this thing will not stay messy forever and I promise you, my dear, that this divorce actually turns out to be the best thing for the families – for you.  Stay strong, my child!

Love,

Angelus

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Help Child Deal with Divorce #1 Annabel, You're Not Alone

Dear Annabel,

            Weeks after your parents divorced, you asked uncle, “Why me? Why are my parents getting divorced? What did I do to deserve this?” This is not your fault. I know this is hard for you, and I want you to know that I’m here for you if you want to share your feelings and thoughts. You’re just like my own daughter. Your father and I are very close, you know that.

            Divorce can make even the smartest person in the world say, “I don’t know what to do or how to feel.” A number of years ago, my parents got divorced too. At that time, I thought it was the worth thing that could ever happen to anyone. I was sad, confused, embarrassed and I couldn’t sleep. My stomach hurt. Many times I asked God, ‘Why?’

            When people get divorced they often have a really hard time. So do their kids. Divorce is an uncomfortable experience for the whole family. Nobody likes it, not even the mom or dad who decided to end the marriage. During my visits to schools and campuses as Christian staff worker, I have spoken to many young people like you whose parents have split up. Most of these students couldn’t find answers to the million questions they had about the divorce. They have been through situation just like you. I’m too. You’re not alone.

            If you want to make sense of it all – this divorce and separations – I want to help you to get through it. I know you are having a hard time trying to understand what’s going in, no matter how brave and strong you are. I hope I can answer some of the difficult questions you might have about what you are experiencing now. I hope my letters to come will gives you the encouragement and strength you need during this tough time. I hope you can overcome this challenging situation out of your parents’ divorce with new hope and understanding. Annabel, believe uncle when I say that you won’t always feel as sad, confused and upset as you are possible feeling right now. Our God is the Father of the fatherless like you and me. The Scripture says, “[Those] who hope in the LORD will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). Be hopeful my child!

                                                                                                            Your friend and uncle,

Angelus

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R.I.P. Annie: Find Happiness, Cherish the Past, Move On (End of 'Letters to Annie' Series)

Dear Annie,

It’s been two years since you passed away and it was one of the hardest times that I have ever experienced in my life. At that time, I was completely lost, unable to express what had just happened to those who are close to me, and refused to allow the process of healing begin by closing myself off from everyone around me.

I know that you will never read this letter… but I which our daughter will. Now that you’re gone. Dealing with your death changed me forever, and the second I accepted that was the second I found the strength to live the life I had always dreamed of. I will never be ashamed of my (our) past. It was part of the wounds that makes my life beautiful. I will not give up! Losing you is a painful reminder that life is way too short and precious to be sad all the time. I have found someone else. She is beautiful and she loves the Lord deeply. I know that you would want nothing more than for me to be happy — not the day-to-day-getting-by-content-happy – but truly happy. With her, I have joy!

When you’re gone, I used to tell myself, “Keep yourself busy.” I did. But now I realised that keeping myself busy doing something that doesn’t make me happy only made me more miserable. It didn’t make the time go by faster — it made each day seem more and more meaningless. So, I keep myself busy taking the time to figure out what it is that I love to do and what God would want me to do. Even though you’re gone, God is here with me. He is my hope – my only hope! I’m grateful that God never leave me. And that is most important than continuously missing you. Is this not the perfect time for me to live with purpose? To motivate myself, embrace my newfound strength and take a chance to wake up every morning grateful? What makes me happy? God! Annabel, our daughter! Family! Friends! Colleagues! And her.

I appreciate our time together. Memories and conversations that we had. But I will move on. I must move on. I’m moving on. I learned that through these struggles (in the past) build my character. My experiences make me unique. I will not be ashamed of our past but from now on, I savour the present and I will only look at the future – with God and His Spirit. With our daughter and someone new.

                                    Regards,

Richard

[To read all of the precious Letters to Annie, click HERE]

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Book Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F#ck (2016) by Mark Manson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F#ck:
A Counterintuitive Approach to Living A Good Life (2016)
by Mark Manson

I'm not self-help-books fan, I was but not now, but this one spoke to me: "The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one's negative experience is itself a positive experience."

Begin with this quote, Mark Manson shows that not giving a f*ck about many things in life is good for the soul - only focus on more important things that matters to you and your values. I've written summary for every chapter of this book, read here: http://idea4today.blogspot.my/search/label/The%20Subtle%20Art%20of%20Not%20Giving%20A%20F*ck%20%28Mark%20Hanson%29?m=0 Enjoy!

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Book Review: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (2016)

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (2016) by Adam Grant

Referencing research and many studies, best-selling author Adam Grant explores what it takes to be creative, innovative and champion new ideas. In Originals, Grant not only offers stories of great accomplishments but also dissects exactly how these accomplishments were achieved. He debunks the idea that originals are great risk-takers. Most of America’s founding fathers were reluctant revolutionaries. Martin Luther King writes that he was pushed into service as leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott before he had a chance to say “no.” Bill Gates eventually dropped out of college but only after first securing a leave of absence from the university and ensuring that his parents would support him. Originals, Grant argues, “are more risk-mitigators than risk-takers.” They are not the firsts to think about change or idea, Grant said, “Being original doesn’t require being first. It just means being different and better.”

Grant also emphasizes that originals are not only successful because they are creative and nonconformist but because they also turn their ideas and their dreams into reality. They find a way to overcome resistance to change, sometimes through counterintuitive strategies. This enlightening 335-page book includes the following eight chapters:

#0 Foreword by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

#1 Creative Destruction

#2 Blind Inventors and One-Eyed Investors

#3 Out on a Limb

#4 Fools Rush In

#5 Goldilocks and the Trojan Horse

#6 Rebel with a Cause

#7 Rethinking Groupthink

#8 Rocking the Boat and Keeping It Steady

I like this book, simple and exciting :) Although, I think that this book is too US… too Americans… But nevertheless, fully recommended!

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Book Review: An Interview with Charles Darwin (2015) by Peter J. Bowler

An Interview with Charles Darwin (2015) by Peter J. Bowler

The author asked a theoretical question: “What if you could sit down with one of the greatest scientific minds of all time – Charles Darwin?” This fictionalized interview, based on Darwin’s own writings and historical facts gives readers like me (with little knowledge but interested to know) a glimpse of how Darwin would have answered the questions people have for him today. From this book, I learned Darwin’s views on education, science, religion and more.

“Charles Darwin is one of the most controversial scientists of all time,” introduce the author. “He proposed an interlocking set of new approaches to the study of how the world we live in has come to assume its present form.” Darwin’s 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, persuaded (most) scientists that they had to take seriously the claim that “all living things have evolved by natural causes from previously existing types.” And he argued that: “there is no preconceived direction of development built into the history of life, and to drive home the point he proposed the mechanism of natural selection, in which populations change according to trial and error… Life is a never-ending process of struggle in which only those best fitted to the local conditions survived and breed.”

Many people found the above suggestions (and some other of Darwinian theories) hard to accept during his time and many still reject them today. The theory conflicts with the Book of Genesis story of creation and the idea that God or Creator created all things perfect at first. If humans are just animals albeit highly intelligent and highly social ones, the critics say, “there seems to be no room here for the immortal soul or transcendent moral values.” And to add more pain to the religious on his time, Darwin suggests that “there is no purpose in the universe.” Darwin makes these conclusions – and came out with the theory of evolution – during his exploratory trip on the HMS Beagle ship around the world: “It was in the Galapagos Islands that Darwin saw the clearest example of this process.”

[Let’s end with the topic of his faith]. Darwin loss his Christian faith first because of so many ‘evidences’ of evolution he found during his time of studies and explorations. And there are few other reasons. “There were [also] personal tragedies that made it difficult for me to carry on believing in a caring God. My favourite daughter, Annie, died horribly at the age of ten… How could a caring God design a world in which the innocent suffers and are snuffed out in that way?” Another reason was that he couldn’t imagine that his late atheist (maybe agnostic) dead brother and father “were damned as far as the most committed Christians are concerned because they don’t accept that Jesus Christ is the saviour.” He continues: “Just because they thought for themselves and decided that the evidence didn’t support the Christian view of God, they are dammed… I can’t believe in a God who requires such a rigid belief in the significance of a single historical event.”

Enough with his believes in God (or the absent of it), this book is interesting, easy-to-understand, and filled with pictures and graphics to help readers to understand more of Darwin’s dangerous ideas. You’ll know important events – not much but sufficient - that causes Darwin to be known as he is today. “If we were visited by superior creatures from another star system… what would they make of the legacy of Darwin as opposed to, say, Marx or Einstein?” Richard Dawkins asks theoretical questions in his foreword of this book, “Would our guests revere another Darwin as one of their greatest thinkers of all time?” With a last sip from my Starbuck coffee, I end this review.

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Book Review: Faith versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (2015)

Faith versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (2015)

by Jerry A. Coyne

The New Atheist leaders such as Richard Dawkins argues that “it’s hard to see how any reasonable person can resist the conclusions of [Coyne’s] superbly argued book”; and Sam Harris praises Coyne by saying that he “has showing that the honest doubts of science are better – and more noble – than the false certainties of religion.” Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist, author of his first own book Why Evolution is True, argues that “religion and science compete in many ways to describe reality – they both make ‘existence claims’ about what is real – but use different tools to meet this goal… the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion – including faith, dogma and revelation – is unreliable and leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Indeed, by relying on faith rather than evidence, religion renders itself incapable of finding truth.”

In May 1988, a 13-year-old girl named Ashley King was admitted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital by court order. She had a tumour on her leg—an osteogenic sarcoma—that was “larger than a basketball” and was causing her leg to decay while her body started to shut down. Ashley’s Christian parents, however, refused to allow doctors permission to amputate and instead moved their daughter to a Christian Science sanatorium, where, in accordance with the tenets of their faith, “there was no medical care, not even pain medication.” Ashley’s mother and father arranged a collective pray-in to help her recover—to no avail. Three weeks later, she died. Had Ashley received medical care, Coyne writes, she would likely have recovered. The Kings, tried in an Arizona court for negligent homicide, expressed no remorse, pleaded no contest, and were convicted on a lesser charge. They effectively escaped punishment, because their actions were faith-motivated. “Had the Kings been atheists,” Coyne writes, “there was a good chance [Ashley] would have lived.”

One day after Coyne giving a talk on evolution, one of the attendees approached him, shook his hand and said, “Dr. Coyne, I found your evidence for evolution very convincing – but I still don’t believe it.” Coyne was amazed. “How could it be that someone found evidence convincing but was still not convinced?” he writes, “The answer, of course, was that his religion had immunized him against my evidence.” He also highlighted one survey stating that 64% of Americans would retain a religious belief even if science disapproved it (which only 23% would consider changing their belief): “If science contradicts the Bible, I will believe the Bible, not science,” one interviewer responded. Some people, he writes, claiming that science and religion are not in conflict but complimenting one another. But in chapter 3, he shows that accommodationist fails.

Jerry Coyle simply argues – from historical, psychological, philosophical, sociological, historical and mainly from scientific views – that any attempt to make religion compatible with science is doomed to fail. “It is time for us to stop seeing faith as a virtue, and to stop using the term ‘person of faith’ as a compliment.” Either you agree or not with his thesis, if you read this book, your faith will be challenge and your mind will be stimulated… I mean, in a good way. What good if you read a book that doesn’t do these things?

[To help me understand this book, I’ve watched two of his interviews on YouTube entitled “Freedom from Religion” and “Faith vs. Fact”]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Book Review: InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity (2012) by Tina L. Seelig

InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity (2012) by Tina L. Seelig

My first encounter with Tina Seelig was gone I searched the internet for talks and documentaries on innovation and creativity. Her TED Talk on the same title amazed me. And her Talks at Google caused me to say, ‘This woman is brilliant!’ She is an international best-selling author and award-winning Stanford University educator and she teaches creativity to students at Stanford and to business leaders around the world. With this credibility, she is the most suitable writer to write on how to be (more) creative and uses simple tools to enhance each individual creative genius.

In today’s world, innovation and creative problem solving are more important than merely having knowledge and good grades. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination (or creativity) is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” That is not to say knowledge is not important – I vow to pursue knowledge every day for the rest of my life – but knowledge alone is not enough. Tina Seelig argues that creativity “is not just something you think about (knowledge) – it is something you do.” And because it is something we do, then, creativity can be taught and enhance from inside out – it is doable. The word ‘ingenious’ is derived from Latin which means natural capacity or innate talent. We can, Tina believes, ignite our inborn inventiveness. Let’s do it!

In this book, Tina offers a revolutionary creative model she called ‘Innovative Engine’ which explains how creativity is generated on the inside and how it is influenced by the outside world (refer to pic below, comment section). There are 6 crucial components: the three insides are – knowledge, imagination, and attitude; and the three outside are – resources, habitat, and culture. In the inside, knowledge provides the fuel for imagination; imagination is the catalyst for the transformation of knowledge into new ideas, and attitude sparks curiosity to acquire related knowledge. From the outside, innovation is influenced by resources, habitat, and culture (think of Google creative-culture).

Tina shows many easy and fun examples in this book: Chapters 1 to 3 delve into the process of enhancing our imaginations by reframing problems, connecting ideas (or ‘connecting the dots’ said Steve Jobs) and challenging assumptions. Chapter 4 focuses on the power of observation to gain knowledge. Chapter 5 to 8 investigates the factors in our habitats that influence our creativity including space, constraints, incentives and team dynamics. Chapter 9 to 10 address our attitudes in doing and thinking about problems or new ideas. And the last chapter 11 she pulls the components back together and shows how all the parts fit together to create the ‘Innovation Engine’, a powerful engine for innovation.

In conclusion, Seelig writes: “You hold the keys to your Innovation Engine and have creative genius waiting to be unleashed. By tapping into this natural resource, you have the power to overcome challenges and generate opportunities for all dimensions. Your ideas – big and small – are the critical starting point for innovations that propel us forward. Without creativity, you are trapped in a world that is not just stagnant, but one that slips backward. As such, we are each responsible for inventing the future. Turn the key.” Buy this book!

[Btw, I bought this book from book fair last year, just RM10. I’m one happy reader!]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Book Review: Steve Jobs (2013) by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs (2013) by Walter Isaacson

Listened to almost all of Walter Isaacson’s Interviews on YouTube. Before he wrote the biography on Steve Jobs, he already wrote few international best-seller biographies such as Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, Albert Einstein, and his most recent book on Leonardo da Vinci (will get this one at Kinokuniya KLCC bookstore this month!). I hope he will write about Isaac Newton and Nikola Tesla too in the future.

This book is VERY thick, 650+ pages. It took me an interval of 3 months, to finish it. First, if it’s not obvious yet, I admire Steven Paul Jobs a.k.a. Steve Jobs very much. First thing first, this book will shatter all your prejudices about the man—the legend—Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson does a phenomenal job chronicling the life of Steve Jobs as told by Jobs and those that knew him best (“My mentor always told me, write biography chronologically,” said Isaacson repeatedly throughout his interviews). Throughout this book, I learned more about Steve's days at Reed College, his fascination with diet and spirituality, and his "distortion reality" that infected anyone that allowed themselves to get caught up in it. Many credit Steve as being the great innovator, but after I read this book, I think he was a genius no doubt and super creative but innovative-parts were mostly done by other people, not him. Jony Ive, I found out, was really the innovator for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, etc. Yet, Steve's infectious distorted reality allowed Apple to become one of the world's greatest companies. Even after he’s gone, his legacy still rings inside Apple.

I read at least 3-4 books about Steve already, but it was a surprise to me when I learned how often he cried when he didn't get his way. I laughed, I pondered, and I often amazed by Steve’s personalities when I read this book (some of his characters I can easily identify with. A bit rude, straight to the point, jerk… maybe I like him because he’s like me… minus the success). Beautifully written. A bit longwinded, but worth the read. Like I said, I speed read… and honestly skipped some of the boring parts. This book is brutally honest. I bet, if you read this book, you’ll gain a deeper respect and understanding of the man that helped change the world… technologically. I’m not an Apple product fan, but I’m a fan of Steve Jobs. One wonder: What would Steve Jobs be doing if he were still alive today? I don’t know. No one knows. For sure, he will have combined arts and technology even more effectively (its rhyme). Just see the book cover, it was Steve who suggested it… simple, elegant, rich.

There are 42 not-so-small-chapters in all:

Ch. 1. Childhood: abandoned and chosen

Ch. 2. Odd couple: the two Steves

Ch. 3. The dropout: turn on, tune in

Ch. 4. Atari and India: Zen and the art of game design

Ch. 5. The Apple I: turn on, boot up, jack in

Ch. 6. The Apple II: dawn of a new age

Ch. 7. Chrisann and Lisa: he who is abandoned

Ch. 8. Xerox and Lisa: graphical user interfaces

Ch. 9. Going public: a man of wealth and fame

Ch. 10. The Mac is born: you say you want a revolution

Ch. 11. The reality distortion field: playing by his own set of rules

Ch. 12. The design: real artists simplify

Ch. 13. Building the Mac: the journey is the reward

Ch. 14. Enter Sculley: the Pepsi challenge

Ch. 15. The launch: a dent in the universe

Ch. 16. Gates and Jobs: when orbits intersect

Ch. 17. Icarus: what goes up

Ch. 18. NeXT: Prometheus unbound

Ch. 19. Pixar: technology meets art

Ch. 20. A regular guy: love is just a four-letter word

Ch. 21. Family man: at home with the Jobs clan

Ch. 22. ToyStoryy: Buzz and Woody to the rescue

Ch. 23. The second coming: what rough beast, its hour come around at last

Ch. 24. The restoration: the loser now Will be later to win

Ch. 25. Think different: Jobs as CEO

Ch. 26. Design principles: the studio of Jobs andI'vee

Ch. 27. The iMac: hello (again)

Ch. 28. CEO: still crazy after all these years

Ch. 29. Apple stores: genius bars and Siena sandstone

Ch. 30. The digital hub: from iTunes to the iPod

Ch. 31. The iTunes Store: I'm the Pied Piper

Ch. 32. Music man: the soundtrack of his life

Ch. 33. Pixar's friends and foes

Ch. 34. Twenty-first-century Macs: setting Apple apart

Ch. 35. Round one: Memento mori

Ch. 36. The iPhone: three revolutionary products in one

Ch. 37. Round two: cancer recurs

Ch. 38. The iPad: into the post-PC era

Ch. 39. New battles: and echoes of old ones

Ch. 40. To infinity: the cloud, the spaceship, and beyond

Ch. 41. Round three: the twilight struggle

Ch. 42. Legacy: the brightest heaven of invention...

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Book Review: The Happiness Project (2015) by Gretchen Rubin

The Happiness Project (2015) by Gretchen Rubin

Do you dream of happiness? Is there a way to take all the things that you do daily and make small changes that can truly make you happier? How can you make each day something that has potential to bring you happiness, even in the middle of everyday struggles?

These are the questions Gretchen Rubin set out to answer on her 1 year-long quest for happiness. She chronicled this journey in this book (with a very long subtitle). While this extended title may make the quest for more happiness seem daunting, Rubin spread her mission across 12 months, tackling a different facet of life each month with the goal to be happier in each area. Each chapter starts with several key points and then goes on to explain how to make them happen, with easy exercises, research to support it, and reminders.

In summary:

January: Boost Energy (Vitality)

February: Remember Love (Marriage)

March: Aim Higher (Work)

April: Lighten Up (Parenthood)

May: Be Serious about Play (Leisure)

June: Make Time for Friends (Friendship)

July: Buy Some Happiness (Money)

August: Contemplate the Heavens (Eternity)

September: Pursue a Passion (Books)

October: Pay Attention (Mindfulness)

November: Keep a Contented Heart (Attitude)

December: Boot Camp Perfect (Happiness)

I've read Gretchen's other book Better Than Good and I love it! So, I thought maybe I should try to read her earlier works. I sort of like and dislike this book. I like it because how the author wonderfully arranged her materials, easy to read, lots of helpful tips and suggestions, her happiness philosophies, personal stories included, and research supported. I also have included some of her resolutions into mine this year (one of it is, update blog every day. But for me, I make it at least once per 2 days). What I don't like about this book is this... Gretchen's ways of making herself happier is not necessary my ways to be happier. Of all her main topics/resolutions, I can say that about only half (or less) of it are useful for me. This book can be shorter too. Now, do you have resolutions this year? Do you include happiness? If you don't have, add one (or more) ... You'll be happier, more positive and funnier.

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Book Review: 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (2017)

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (2017) by Tony Reinke

“Do You Control Your Phone — Or Does Your Phone Control You?” Within a few years of its unveiling, the smartphone had become part of us, fully integrated into the daily patterns of our lives. Never offline, always within reach, we now wield in our hands a magic wand of technological power we have only begun to grasp. But it raises new enigmas, too. Never more connected, we seem to be growing more distant. Never more efficient, we have never been more distracted. Tony Reinke observed: “The smartphone is causing a social reversal: the desire to be alone in public and never alone in seclusion.”

Drawing on the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed our lives—for good and ill. Reinke calls us to cultivate healthy habits for smartphone use in the digital age, encouraging us to be grateful for technological advance, develop skills aimed at maximizing the blessing that we (and others) can receive through our phones, and grow in the wisdom we need to avoid the many pitfalls that exist with such a powerful tool.

In summary, the 12 ways are:

1) We Are Addicted to Distraction

2) We Ignore Our Flesh and Blood

3) We Crave Immediate Approval

4) We Lose Our Literacy

5) We Feed on the Produced

6) We Become Like What We “Like”

7) We Get Lonely

8) We Get Comfortable in Secret Vices

9) We Lose Meaning

10) We Fear Missing Out

11) We Become Harsh to One Another

12) 12 We Lose Our Place in Time

And let me add no.13, by thinking and wanted to be smart, “We sometime posting/saying something stupid.” Like the old and wise Apostle Paul once wrote: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything… All things are lawful, but not all things build up.”

[If you want to listen to this book for free, register at https://christianaudio.com/free/ You’ll get new book for free every month. And if you want to read except from this book, go to https://www.desiringgod.org/books/12-ways-your-phone-is-changing-you]

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Book Review: Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? (2005) by Roberta Edwards

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? (2005) by Roberta Edwards

Leonardo da Vinci was a gifted painter, talented musician, and dedicated scientist and inventor, designing flying machines (more of theatrical objects), made prototype submarines, and even basic mechanics and sketches for future airplane. Yet he had a hard time finishing things, a problem anyone can relate to. Only thirteen paintings are known to be his; as for the illustrated encyclopaedia he intended to create, all that he left were thousands of disorganized notebook pages. Here is an accessible portrait of a fascinating man who lived at a fascinating time — Italy during the Renaissance. In fact, Leonardo is called “The Renaissance Man”, polymath, term use to describe a person with many talents or areas of knowledge.

This book – with pictures – is very basic. Many things about Leonardo are not covered in this book (example, he was a gay) and well so because it mainly written for young reader. I can’t wait to read Walter Isaacson’s new book, subject-name title, Leonardo da Vinci. I saw one at MHP Bookstore, The Spring, but still expensive… maybe I should wait for it to come out at BookXcess. Meanwhile, I’ll stay curious and continue to learn more about him and his thinking. Leo once said, “Learning never exhausts the mind.”

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.