Haushaltsgeräte

Kurzbeschreibung

Kurzbeschreibung

This is a book for people interested in German, either because they speak it or because they are learning it and want to increase their vocabulary. Each word I introduce is accompanied by a drawing, which, I hope, will make learning fun.

I focus on compound nouns that attach a certain feeling, character trait, attitude, or habit to an animal (or, in a few cases, a plant). An example is ?Dreckspatz?, which combines ?Dreck? (dirt) and ?Spatz? (sparrow) to refer to a person, especially a child, who is prone to get dirty, for example, by playing in the mud, and shows little interest in cleanliness.

The challenge was to depict these ?creatures? in a way that makes the connection to an existing animal or plant clear, but imbues them at the same time with the characteristics a particular word refers to. I've reached my goal if I make readers smile or, for students of German, lighten the essentially arduous task of memorizing words in that language.

In studying the words illustrated here, readers will not only learn these words as they stand, but also the components out of which they are composed. Additional words are introduced in the explanations I have provided for each entry. After going through the book, readers will be able to impress native German speakers, who will not expect foreigners to know the words illustrated in this book.

Kurzbeschreibung

This is a book for people interested in German, either because they speak it or because they are learning it and want to increase their vocabulary. Each word I introduce is accompanied by a drawing, which, I hope, will make learning fun.

I focus on compound nouns that attach a certain feeling, character trait, attitude, or habit to an animal (or, in a few cases, a plant). An example is ?Dreckspatz?, which combines ?Dreck? (dirt) and ?Spatz? (sparrow) to refer to a person, especially a child, who is prone to get dirty, for example, by playing in the mud, and shows little interest in cleanliness.

The challenge was to depict these ?creatures? in a way that makes the connection to an existing animal or plant clear, but imbues them at the same time with the characteristics a particular word refers to. I've reached my goal if I make readers smile or, for students of German, lighten the essentially arduous task of memorizing words in that language.

In studying the words illustrated here, readers will not only learn these words as they stand, but also the components out of which they are composed. Additional words are introduced in the explanations I have provided for each entry. After going through the book, readers will be able to impress native German speakers, who will not expect foreigners to know the words illustrated in this book.

Kurzbeschreibung

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Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe

Kurzbeschreibung

Kurzbeschreibung

Kurzbeschreibung