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Read about 2009 to know about the Covid-19 financial crisis of 2020

March 17, 2020March 17, 2020 amandafristrom 0 Comment Adult, Booklist, What

What is the “Covid-19 financial crisis of 2020”? If you want to learn about what’s happening in the markets right now but don’t know where to start, start here.

There’s been an 11-year bull market – the longest bull market in US history, and perhaps globally. Has it been driven because of the monetary easing from the last crash? There’s been “free” money from the quantitative easing (printing money) to bolster the region and a drop of interest rates to zero (which happened March 15, 2020 just like in 2008). Governments started printing money to save institutional collapse, allowing for a lot of loans to be made. What do you get? A market that ran, and ran, and ran until the valuation of companies had inflated into a bubble market ready to pop.

Add in an oil war.

Add in Covid-19.

The global economy is shutting down as people are self-isolating and trying to adjust to working from home. Factories shutting down, stores shutting down, shipping halting. Grocery stores empty.

How are the markets responding? The same way they did 11 years ago. How far will the bailouts extend? What will the real estate market do? Is recession coming?

Book list to understand the covid-19 financial crisis of 2020

Read these books to learn more about the financial crisis of 2008 — and see what comparisons you see with March 2020.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis – Understand how bubbles are created and how they burst, and how perversely financial markets are incentivized to take massive risks – leaving the taxpayers to pay the bill. There’s no free lunch.

The Boomerang; Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis – Anything that goes up must come down, right? Read about the fascinating stories of Iceland and Greece; their mirage from financial manipulation.

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis – to understand what quantitative trading is. How are quant traders able to skim off money from others quickly?

Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain – Have you ever wondered about the battle of egos between those at the top of the corporate ladder? Where the level-headed decision makers are? To understand where the markets are going, you may want to understand those calling the shots and why they may be making the choices they do.

Essentially written by Otso Fristrom

Want to use children’s books to help teach your children about germs, viruses and health? Listen to Episode 24: Healthy Bodies, Healthy Books with Coleen Graham

Week one: Get Lovin’ those books

March 12, 2020March 28, 2020 amandafristrom 0 Comment Uncategorized, What, Young Children

Welcome to One Page at a Time’s Summer of Fun! We hope you’ll get lovin’ those books right off the bat. We are bringing you 12 weeks of books and activities for all ages, all centered on a weekly theme that will help you bring books into activities that you are already planning or could easily add into your summer plans. With several books in each reading level category, we hope that there are at least a couple that are available to you, wherever you may be. The activities are also planned to be simple and cost-effective, making them achievable for anyone who wants in on the fun!

To kick off our Summer of Fun, we wanted to start with something that will hopefully set you and your families up for a whole summer of finding the fun in books. For this week we have gathered our favorite books about books for all reading levels so we can celebrate the awesomeness found in all those pages out there in the world.

And now, without further ado, we give you WEEK ONE: Fall in Love with Books!

Picture Books

This is My Book by Mark Pett

The author/illustrator of this book may think he is in control, but he definitely underestimates his rogue illustration!

How This Book was Made by Mac Barnett

Librarian on the Roof! A True Story by MG King and Stephen Gilpin

How to Read a Story by Kate Messner

Juvenile Fiction

The Great Treehouse War by Lisa Graff

Matilda by Roald Dahl

A Kind of Paradise by Amy Rebecca Tan

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Young Adult Fiction

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Adult Fiction

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry

The Cracked Spine: A Scottish Bookshop Mystery by Paige Shelton

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay

Adult Non-Fiction

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes

The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller

My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul

Toddler Activity

Make reading as fun for the kiddos as possible this week so that they absolutely fall in love with it!

Read somewhere you don’t normally read (outside, at the table while eating a meal, in Mom and Dad’s bed, in a fort built underneath the dining room table, etc)
Make a treat together and then read while eating the treats
Read a favorite book over and over again
Give them an M&M every time they hear a certain word in a book,
Listen to an audiobook while snuggled together on a couch or bed
Ask your local librarian to help you find a stack of books all about something that they love right now

or whatever else you can think of! And then share your ideas with us so we can try them out, too!

Youth Activity

Try your hands at creating your own book recommendation lists! Pick a theme (go simple- “books set in England,” or go detailed- “books with an animal as the narrator”), or simply try and narrow your choices down to your top five or ten (or fifty!) books you would recommend to people. Pick the same theme as friends, siblings or parents and see how many books in common you all chose.

Adult/Family Activity

Have a family movie night and watch the movie version of a book you have read and loved. Use this as a way to encourage a reluctant reader to finish a book or to connect a younger child to books by introducing him/her to a favorite character from the screen in book version.

Week one: summer 2020 Download

Episode 19: How We Read with Lucia and JR Ratliff

February 13, 2020March 12, 2020 amandafristrom 0 Comment Episode, How, How we read, Parenting, What audiobook, episode, how, marriage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:36 — 28.4MB) | Embed

Have you ever read with your spouse? Maybe listened to a book in the car together? We get lots of great ideas from Lucia and JR Ratliff on how they read together, and then Jill and Amanda talk about how it went with their husbands when they brought up the possibility of reading together.

This week we are joined by married couple Lucia and JR Ratliff. Natives of the US, they are currently experiencing life in host Amanda’s neck of the woods- the United Arab Emirates. She is a songwriter and teacher while he is a professor and they have four kids. They have been reading together since the early days of their relationship and now have years’ worth of experience and advice to share with us!

In this episode we talk about:

1. How did they get started? “Just a matter of, we only have one book, but we both want to read it, so we’ll just read it out loud!” As it went on, their voices couldn’t keep up with them, so they switched to audiobooks. They listen or read while doing other things- such as working out or playing tetris as well as in the car. Quite often it also happens when they are in bed at the end of the day, when they utilize the handy timer function on many audiobook players so as not to lose their place when they fall asleep!

2. How has reading together affected their relationship? It gives them something beyond their kids and everyday lives to joke about, relate about and talk about. “It definitely added another dimension to our relationship, because we were doing that together…”

3. How do they decide what books to read? Goodreads, recommendations from friends, Audible suggestions similar to books they have enjoyed, reading their way through the collections of authors they like. They take turns picking the books so that both of their tastes and interests are covered.

4. How and when do they talk about the books that they read together? It is usually mixed in with their everyday conversations. Their morning routines are a great time to chat about what they listen to the night before, while they are in the car or even as they are messaging each other throughout the day, when a thought occurs to them or something else they read connects to it.

5. Where are their kids during all this book listening? Sometimes the kids are around! Usually it is when they are all in the car and Lucia picks one that is appropriate for all of them (“Lucia is the audiobook CEO around here!”). They usually stick to children’s literature when they are all together, however, at times parts of the books they read as a couple stick out to them that they want to share with their kids and listen to it together.

6. Where could a couple start who have never read together? Start with what you already enjoy doing together. “I think couples already kind of know what they enjoy doing together and most things come in book form!” Taking turns is important as well, because it helps you get to know your partner in a new and different way, or gives you clues as to what is on their mind when you read what the other is into at the moment.

7. Audiobooks vs. reading out loud to each other will come down to each couple’s preference. The Ratliffs have their reasons for preferring audiobooks, but each couple will have to figure out what works best for them!

We are so grateful to Lucia and JR for taking the time to talk with us and can’t wait to dive into this list of recommendations they gave!