Happy Chinese New Year! “How many languages do you speak?” When I met Charles Novacek he spoke seven languages fluently and was working on number eight – Chinese. He said China was becoming a major economy and over a billion people spoke the language. Learning Mandarin would give him intellectual stimulation and would be advantageous …
Charles’ love of the High Tatra Mountains of Slovakia deepened when at the age of nine in 1937, he was sent there to a special sanitarium for children to recover from tuberculosis. “I was told that the mountain air cured me,” Charles said. There “I became acquainted with the territory where years later I would …
Reading books aloud to each other isn’t just for kids! It has benefits for all ages. Listening to books read aloud sharpens focus, improves reading and listening skills, increases vocabulary, and activates imagination. In fact, studies show reading aloud to adults stimulates brain activity, provides socialization and may help to lessen symptoms of dementia, Alzheimer’s, …
At Christmastime, when I think of my late husband Charles I often think about the painting, The Madonna of the Chair, c. 1514, by Italian renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). One of the most famous Madonna paintings, this work depicts Mary embracing the child Christ, while the young John the Baptist looks on. A reproduction of the painting and ornate …
This year is the seventh Christmas I will celebrate the gift of the publication of Charles’ book, Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance. I am grateful to Charles for leaving us the legacy of the story of his life spent before, during and after wartime and so very thankful for its many readers! …
Next week (September 23-29, 2018) is “Banned Books Week,” an annual awareness campaign promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International. The campaign celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. Charles grew up in the 20th century’s World War II Nazi and Communist occupied …
