Recommended Summer Reads from the Train!

Recommended Summer Reads

Authors

·         Larry Niven

·         Orson Scott Card

·         Douglas Adams

·         Andres Norton

·         John Green

·         Susan Cooper

·         Neil Gaiman

·         Meg Cabot

·         JRR Tolkein

·         Oscar Wilde

·         Stephen King

·         Tamara Pierce

·         Ian Flemming

·         Edgar Allen Poe

Books

·         Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

·         D’artagnan Trilogy (Series), by Alexandre Dumas

·         Beauty

·         Spindles End

·         Avalon High

·         Dune, by Frank Herbert

·         Ender’s Game (Series)

·         Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Series), by Douglas Adams

·         Atlas Shrugged

·         Paper Town, by John Green

·         Hunger Games (Series)

·         Game of Thrones (Series)

·         Host, by Stephanie Meyer

·         The Name of the Wind (Series), by Patrick Rothfuss

·         Artemis Fowl (Series), by Eoin Colfer

·         Poison Princess, by Kresley Cole

·         The Odyssey

·         The Iliad

·         The Great Gatsby

·         The Beautiful Love (Series)

·         50 Shades of Grey (Series)

·         Harry Potter (Series)

·         Silver Linings Playbook

·         Perks of being a Wallflower

·         1984

·         The Color Blue

·         Mass Effect

·         Eragon, by Christopher Paolini

·         Arabian Nights

·         The Mortal Instruments (Series)

·         Complete Stories of Franz Kafka

·         Fatherland, by Robert Harris

·         Flatland

·         Mila 18, by Leon Uris

·         Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

·         White Bone

·         Ugly (Series), by Scott Westerfield

·         Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead

·         Secret Life of Bees

·         Dragon Rider

·         City of Ember (Series)

·         City of Angels

·         A Great and Terrible Beauty

·         Beautiful Creatures

·         Pendragon (Series)

·         Morganville Vampire Series

·         The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks

·         Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks

·         The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks

·         Safe Haven, by Nicholas Sparks

·         Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

·         The Gone Away World, by Nick Harkaway

·         Percy Jackson Series

·         The Forever War

·         Diskworld

·         Good Omens

Hello, everyone!

Here is our group photo from Museum Boerhaave in Leiden on our first full day in Europe. We will be getting the photo sharing site set up soon for those of you in the course, so watch for that info in addition to the course survey and final exam questions that Liz and I will be sending you tomorrow.

Drinking Habits! Culture Post

One cultural difference that I have noticed is that many people go to restaurants for just a drink. At every single restaurant I have gone to, they've asked us whether we are there to eat or to drink. I've also noticed many people just drinking at a restaurant without any food. In the US this is more common to do at a bar, not a regular restaurant.

Apartment Shopping...

I thought that Marie Curie's first apartment was very interesting.  It amazes me that she had no electricity, no heat (except coal), and still loved where she was living. That sort of speaks about where she was in life and where she wanted to be. I was also surprised that they don't have her apartment marked off and that tenants live there to this day. I wonder if they even know it was Marie's apartment?

Pantheon - Kristy

One of my favorite places to see was the Pantheon. The architecture there looks amazing and I was astounded looking at the all the statues and paintings. It was all really beautiful and was masterfully created. The graves underground were also a great experience to see. It's nice France provides a place for the great people in history and science to group all together, so if you want to visit the grave of several you can visit all of them in one location.

June 2nd - Culture Post

Language is a bigger deal here in France than it was in the Netherlands. Perhaps it stems from more nationalistic sentiments here in France, or maybe just because the Dutch are more multicultural given their population and size; but regardless it seems as though people in France are much more likeley to get peeved at you for not knowing the language than the dutch would. I can't say I blame them. In the States people get mad all the time when someone starts speaking anything other than English. Maybe we all just need to take a chill pill and eat another stroopwafel ;)

Kyle's Curie Tour

The Curie tour gave me a good idea for the types of conditions that Curie experienced during her life. The most interesting thing to me is just how expensive it was to create just a gram of radium. That just 1 gram cost $100,000 is insane, but the fact that it required 4 grams to use the radium bomb for testing just makes it even more insane. This price for the radium doesn't even include the cost of designing the machine and the parts that are used to make it. The fact that a women during this time was able to accomplish so much is astounding, but what made it even more fascinating is that her father in law was willing to watch the kids so that she could continue her research.