Books - Last 2017 Post!

I read 47 books this year, HOORAYYY. Maybe 14 of them were classics I had never read before, which is cool, plus a lot of others were more current event-y books that I think are really important. Best book...hmmm....The Poisonwood Bible, but there were lots of good ones. What else are you reading?

Here are the rest of the books I read in 2017!

Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson. I don't know. It was funny I guess. Memoirs/comedy of touring the UK. I kept thinking Why am I reading this? But also I couldn't stop reading it. So there's a totally useless review for you.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare. A book club re-read from my childhood. A great book.

Company Man - John Rizzo. Memoirs from one of the top lawyers at the CIA. Gave interesting background about the decisions to waterboard. Rizzo argues that President Bush did not know about specific interrogation techniques, but that Bush said he was aware so that he could take the fall, and that makes him a "stand-up guy." Anyway, interesting stuff. Also I appreciated his nonpartisan approach (Rizzo left when Obama was elected due to the fallout over the Torture Memos, but personally voted for both republicans and democrats based on how capable the person seemed and how upheaval would affect the atmosphere of Washington).

No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington - Condoleezza Rice. I don't know WHY I keep reading all these Bush era political memoirs but whatever. Liked it, like her.

Born a Crime - Trevor Noah. One of the big books of the year. I was glad I read it. Humor but also brutal honestly in talking about South Africa.

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride - Cary Elwes. Listened to this on audiobook and couldn't stop laughing. I wish Cary Elwes was my uncle and Andre the Giant was my, um, larger uncle.

The Monuments Men - Robert M. Edsel. I kept looking up stuff about famous artwork and I feel like I learned a lot. So many aspects of WWII I don't know about yet.

Books - Post 6

I'm way behind on my book posts, people. Some of these I feel like I read ages ago. So here's just a quick trip through my reading life lately.

The Magnolia Story - Chip and Joanna Gaines. Cute. They're so likable.

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi. If you want to read an extremely powerful memoir, read this. Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He and his wife made the brave decision to start a family. Such beautiful lessons about life, death, and our relationship with God.

The Conscience of a Conservative - Jeff Flake. I went to High School with some of the Flake kids, and he was my representative growing up. Although I'm pretty sure that tons of people--both conservatives and liberals--will HATE this, I just so wholeheartedly agree with his assessment of the floundering of the Republican party, and I appreciate Flake's desire to speak the truth even though there will probably be very real consequences. When did we become the party of xenophobia and nativism? Stop it, guys. Just stop it. Nationalism is not patriotism, and stating this "is not an act of apostasy" but "an act of fidelity." A great read to understand the Trump years and what changes we can make, even though, like I said, I'm pretty sure lots of people I know will hate this.

The Stranger - Camus. Meh.

The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan. Got kind of political at times but I probably should have expected that. I agree with Pollan that we have lost touch with our eating roots, and I should have more awareness of where my food comes from. Very interesting.

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls. A re-read. Heartbreaking and mind blowing, one of those books that everyone should read at least once.

The Revenant - Michael Punke. Grizzly bears and fur trappers and revenge and stuff.

Hillbilly Elegy - J.D. Vance. My pick for a family book club. I totally understand why this book has become so popular. Such an important read. It's basically a memoir about family life in white working class Appalachia written from the perspective of a man who left and went to Yale Law. A great read to understand the Trump years...is it just me or do I sound like a broken record? Sad and raw and real and critical to understanding America now, I think.

Books 2017 - Post 5

Seven Years in Tibet - Heinrich Harrer. Read this for the Zollinger family book club. It was so interesting because I didn't know anything about Tibet. They practiced polyandry there when Harrer was there in the 1940s...one woman married to a bunch of different men. Also the Dalai Lama is cool.

Ross Poldark, Demelza, Jeremy Poldark, Warleggan - Winston Graham. Okay, so I might have gone through a *slight* Poldark obsession this summer. It all started by watching the BBC program first, and then when I finished agonizing over all the episodes I went to the books. But I first had to decide if I even wanted more Poldark in my life because I was SO MAD at the protagonist. Seriously, I have never been so emotionally involved in the decisions a bunch of fictional characters make in my life. Maybe Harry Potter. Anyway, the books added a lot of clarity and detail and background that just didn't fit in the show, but is it weird if I say I almost liked the show better?? Something so rich and so beautiful about how Ross and Demelza were portrayed on screen that I didn't feel in the books. Was it the music, the Cornwall scenery? Not sure. There are EIGHT more books in the series but I have only read up to the part where the show stopped. Don't worry, Season 3 is available in America on October 1. Anyway, I am thinking I will stop reading now because I would almost rather watch it than read it??? It's like I don't even know who I am anymore. I am so curious to see what happens next. There is a lot of potential to demonstrate real forgiveness and redemption here (YEAH ROSS YOU MESSED UP).

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood. Maybe the book that made me think the hardest since I did a bunch of analyzing and researching and writing on lit in college. Some may read this as a critique on Christianity but it's not. A few passages really hit home to me...Do we classify women based on their fertility? Hmm. Can't say I haven't thought about that before. Some really good characters here, and I like the fact that the book forces you to interpret so much for yourself.

The BFG - Roald Dahl. Another book club. I read this as a child but I don't think I appreciated the whimsical, funny, intelligent play with language before.

My Story - Elizabeth Smart. This book was so hard to read, because it is true and I remember it happening. I almost cannot believe that such evil exists in the world. I am amazed at how Elizabeth Smart handled this, and how she can write about it. When she came home, her mother told her not to spend time feeling sorry for herself, because that was just allowing her captor to steal more time from her. I think I would have been ticked if I had heard that. Sometimes we feel so justified in feeling sorry for ourselves. Um, I feel sorry for myself all the time. ALL THE TIME. But Elizabeth writes about how she just made a choice to find happiness, which is amazing after you read about the things that happened to her. It has given me new resolve to just not look for reasons to feel sorry for myself. It was also a beautiful reminder about how our God never leaves us comfortless.

Books 2017 - Post 4

I've gotten a little behind blogging about books with our move and everything, so here's a little catch up post!

Babylon's Ark - Lawrence Anthony. This was written by the same guy who wrote the book about elephants on his game reserve. When the Iraq War came to Baghdad, Anthony hopped on a plane to save the Baghdad Zoo. He was the first civilian allowed into the city, and even though a high percentage of the animals had been killed by bombs or killed for food by rampant looters, Anthony was able to save most of the remaining animals, including a herd of man-eating lions who had been kept in Saddam's palace. This book gives an interesting perspective about how war touches civilian lives.

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson. So I can't decide if I liked this book or not. Bryson writes about attempting to walk the 2000+ miles of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. I loved the parts about the trail's history because there were some fun little tidbits of American folklore. But guess what? They don't even hike the whole trail, and at the end of the book, the author is like, "We got to know the trail and spent a lot of time on the trail so we basically hiked it." Um, no you didn't.

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury. A Zollinger Book Club book. I thought some of Bradbury's observations about technology in culture were so spot-on. I didn't find myself really drawn to the characters but this book really makes you think. So many nuggets of wisdom. I will always remember how at the end of the book, the keepers of the literature head back to help those in a city that has just been totally bombed out. They are the only ones who remember Shakespeare, and the Bible, but rescuing humanity is more important, ultimately, than safeguarding the books. Books and literature are only valuable if they help us remember and learn what is really important.

Flags of Our Fathers - James Bradley. A good book to read around Independence Day. This book is about the six flag-bearers who put up a flag on Mount Suribachi. The picture that was taken became iconic for so much more.

Three of the men who raised the flag were killed within days. Sometimes we only hear the life stories of the men who came back from war, so I think it's important to learn about the background of common soldiers who didn't come back too. The twist here is that just a few years ago, they figured out that the man whose son wrote the book was mis-identified, and wasn't actually in the picture. 

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt. A pulitzer prize winning memoir about a boy growing up poor in Ireland in the 1930s and 40s. I love memoirs, but this one got rather crass at the end and seemed to lose substance to me as it did so. I skipped a few parts, but the coming of age story was memorable.

Books 2017 - Post 3

I know what you all need today. You need to hear all of my opinions about the books I've been reading lately. Right? Right.

But first, a funny meme about books.

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom. Am I a terrible person if I didn't like this book as much as other people like this book? The poignancy and life lessons learned felt a little forced to me.  

The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead. Greg got me this book for Mother's Day because he's an amazing human being. This book was thought-provoking. It re-imagines the Underground Railroad of the antebellum south as an actual underground railroad, with conductors and trains and everything. It blends really, really authentic historical fiction with the fantastical in a way that I don't know if I've seen done before. That allows Whitehead to discuss a variety of social themes touching on the African American experience throughout American history in a way he probably couldn't have done otherwise. You grow to really care about the main character, Cora, but beware: this book is sad, and kind of graphic at times. It will never be one of my favorite books but I'm glad I read it. 

Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane. I first read Mathabane in high school, and I just always remembered the name. This is a memoir of Mathabane growing up in the ghetto in South Africa during apartheid. Out of all the heinous things in his life, it just BLOWS my mind that apartheid government systematically destroyed black families (among other atrocities). Blacks were sent to live on tribal lands and could only work in cities if they had a permit and a job. No one wanted to live on desert tribal lands because there was no way to support a family, but women weren't allowed to bring families to cities if they didn't have jobs. So what ended up happening is that men lived in the ghetto in government dorm style housing and women stayed on the impoverished tribal land--and never saw their families. If families did live together in the ghetto, they often did so illegally, and their children grew up terrified of police brutality. Reading this heart-breaking memoir just reiterated my belief about how important strong families are for the health of a society. Anyway, great read. I love memoirs. 

The Elephant Whisperer - Lawrence Anthony. So this book also took place in South Africa, and it was very informative to read both books together--one written from the perspective of a young black in the ghetto of Johannesburg, and one written by an older white man who was trying to run a game reserve in Zululand. This is also the first audio book I have listened to by myself...usually when I do audiobooks it is so Greg and I can listen to something together. While it was super nice to have something good to listen to while I was doing dishes or driving or whatever, I kind of missed the smell of the paper, turning back a few pages to reread something, seeing the beautiful African names spelled out...I don't know. I'm old-fashioned I guess. Anyway, I now LOVE elephants and this book was beautiful...perhaps even overly sentimental at times. This made me want to read more from Lawrence Anthony. Also I really really need to go on a safari. One day, it'll happen. One day. 

Books 2017 - Post 2

I didn't think I would write another book post so soon, but I've read a few more and I might as well record them while Brynn is playing.

The Perpetual Now - Michael Lemonick. Tells the story of an artist whose brain was damaged by a virus, to the point where she can't form new memories and therefore cannot access old ones either. Learning about the brain was interesting, especially when told in such an anecdotal way, but I found the book a little repetitive at times.

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver. I started this once in college but, you know, sometimes it was hard to read books for fun when I was reading approximately 5672 pages every week just to keep up in class. I really loved this book. A family of missionaries goes to the Congo for a year at the time of independence from Belgium, and their lives become totally intertwined with Africa. I found the character of the despicable father to be believable at the beginning of the book, but perhaps less so as the book went on. I wished he was more involved at the end of the book but I think the way that his character was handled was very conscious on Kingsolver's part. This book was so intelligently written. I wished I understood the politics/history behind the US's involvement in the Congo revolution better, because I think it would be beneficial to get another perspective. Anyway, I highly recommend this.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck. Heartbreaking. Amazing how Steinbeck gets you to care so much about so many characters in such a short book.

A Thousand Miles to Freedom - Eunsun Kim. A memoir written by a woman who escaped North Korea. Perhaps written a little simplistically, but I think that only adds to the sincerity and humility of the message, and the overall power of the book. It made me want to be more educated about the Korean situation.

Books 2017

So, I've realized lately that I kind of miss blogging about books. I really liked going back and thinking hard about what I had read. I'm aware of the fact that this makes me super nerdy, but I also kind of liked having a little catalog of everything I had read in a year.

It's funny, because sometimes I am painfully aware of how little I have read. I have a degree in English and my Master's, too, but there are JUST SO MANY good books that I haven't read. In high school I read some of the "basic" classics, but I feel like in college I kind of skipped ahead and read pieces who lived in the more obscure corners of the literary canon, so in the middle there is this big gaping hole of classic books I just haven't read. It's okay though, you know? My best professors were always the ones who would readily admit that there is always more to read, and they themselves felt like they hadn't read enough.

So this year I'm trying to fill in my holes and read more classics, but that is a less important goal than just reading good things and continuing to learn.

Books so far from 2017 (Two of these are repeat reads. Ahem, I'll let you guess which)

The Music of Dolphins - Karen Hesse. Funny story about this book, my teacher read it to our class in the fifth grade. But I missed parts she read aloud because of ELP and orchestra, so I've always wanted to go back and read it, and I did. Very interesting, sad but sweet.

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Inheritance - Charles Finch. Part of a series of guilty pleasure mystery novels.

State of Wonder - Ann Patchett. I was mostly interested in this because one of my favorite books in the world, Journey to the River Sea, is also set in Manaus, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon. A scientist goes to the Amazon to get information about a dead colleague and a bunch of interesting weird sciencey stuff happens. But the ending was kind of terrible.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith. LOVED this. Should have read it years ago.

Night - Elie Wiesel

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. I finally read this dang blasted book. And I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

The Wives of Los Alamos -TaraShea Nesbit. Written from a unique perspective. Tells stories from the point of view of women who lived in the top secret facility where the atom bomb was developed during WWII. 

1984 - George Orwell. Blew my mind. I found myself thinking not only about the political scene but also a lot about gospel principles. God does expect us to submit to Him and give Him our free will, but it is all about us gaining happiness. It is about us improving and growing and loving and changing and actually choosing something better. It is not just about God having power. Anyway, this made me think very deeply about how obedience can be freedom (because of the Big Brother saying "Slavery is Freedom") and WHY that is true only if it is done in the right way. It is so easy for this concept to be subtly manipulated into something so heinous. Such a terrifically tragic book, but so good at the same time. 

Anyways, those are my books so far. Any other good suggestions? 

35 Books

I just decided to pop into my blog and decided it looked pretty neglected.

We spent two whole weeks in Idaho for Christmas. It was crazy fun. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures sometime. We'll see. 

The last little while, I've been trying to articulate what goals I want to set for myself in 2017. That, of course, made me remember that I have two books I never blogged about from last year. AND I'M A PERFECTIONIST SO I'M GOING TO FINISH IT AND TELL YOU ABOUT THOSE DARN BOOKS. 

Seriously, though, it was great to focus a little bit more on reading. Maybe that seems like a silly goal, but it was important to me. When I see people that I admire, it always strikes me how involved they are. They have talents, skills, hobbies, passions. They take time to make things, improve themselves, learn things, serve people. I want to use my time on this earth wisely. I am NEVER going to look back and wish I watched more TV, or spent more time scrolling through social media. So while there are times to read and there are times to do other things, I'm glad I read this year. It was good. One step on the road to becoming an accomplished, involved person. It feels good. 

So, here are the last two books I read in December of 2016: 

Do you remember Ken Jennings? He's that guy who had a crazy long streak on Jeopardy back when I was in junior high or whatever. Yeah, I didn't remember him either. But guess what? He's hysterical. Extremely clever humor and I love that stuff. Back in 2015 I read Maphead, which was really a very entertaining book. It was nonfiction that was hilarious, interesting, light, and super informative all at the same time. So I was excited to read Brainiac, which was actually written before Maphead. It was all about trivia and the rise/fall of trivia in culture, and also sort of a memoir about his Jeopardy experience. I hate to say this, but it just isn't as good as Maphead. The sections about Jeopardy are interesting. What can I say? I like memoirs of any sort. The sections on trivia got boring for me after awhile. 

This book ^ was one of the best books I read all year. I would highly recommend it. It is a memoir from an African American man about his mother, who was white, and not only white, but raised as an Orthodox Jew. She left home and an extremely rough family situation and married a black man in the 1940s, a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in many states. When James asked his mother why she was white and he was black, she said she was only "light-skinned." When he asked her what color God was, she said "God is the color of water." There is something kind of beautiful about that. Water transcends color. Anyway, it was a great read, very sweet, very powerful, very eye-opening. 

So I just scrolled back to look at a little recap of all my book posts. Last year I read 35 books, plus a few more for my personal gospel study. Did a little research just due to curiosity...the mean number of books people read in some kind of study or something is about 20. Some well-readish people say they read 30-40, or around 50. Other fancy pantsy people read more. 35 seems kind of like a low number to me, but hey. I was reading. It was awesome. I found myself excited to write about the books I was reading and more optimistic about the fact that if I went to the library to get a book I had wanted to read for awhile, it would actually get read before I ran out of Renewals. I started lots of books I didn't finish, but that's okay I think. (Here's a secret: Sometime certain books are not worth finishing.) 

So hopefully I get around to blogging about my goals for 2017 soon. I like having the blog as accountability, so everyone has to read my boring inspiring self-improvement posts and LIKE IT. 

I Can't Think of Any More Titles About Books

I've got two very different selections for you today, friends. 

This was a cute memoir-type story from the country Queen. I actually don't know that much about Ree Drummond except for I like her recipe for chocolate pudding dessert. It's a quick, cute read, really sweet and funny.

The Light Between Oceans was a really powerful book. It was really hard to read for me at times. But, then again, reading about infertility and pregnancy loss can sometimes also be cathartic for me. It's about a lighthouse keeper and his wife who live alone on an island. They desperately want a baby, and one day a baby girl washes up to shore in a rowboat. The book explores love, despair, joy, making mistakes, and, most painfully, fixing mistakes. It's also sort of about trying to understand mistakes in the first place. I took a writing class at BYU, and one of the biggest things I remember my professor saying is that you have to torture your characters. What she meant is, the more complex the problems, the more complex the characters. Their decisions become more meaningful. I have never seen that technique so painfully illustrated as in this book. It is beautiful and just so sad at the same time. The ending was the only possible ending that made sense, but it was also heart-breaking. For all the beauty, this book leaves you feeling kind of empty. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Life is like that, right? Beauty and difficulty have to coexist. Anyway, I would definitely recommend this one. Just make sure you are ready for something a little bit heavy. The book will wear on you, but it will be worth it. 

Back to Books

Time to blog about books again.

The other day when I was in the library the book "41" caught my eye. I love memoirs, and it looked interesting to me. I don't know very much about George H W Bush, so I checked it out, not knowing if I ever would get around to reading it. Maybe it's because we're in such a political flurry right now, but once I started reading, I couldn't stop. I thought the memoir was thought-provoking, and I gained a new respect for people who enter politics because they really just want to do the right thing. I wish there were more people like that who could get traction in today's world. It makes me think I just need to put on my big girl panties and join the board for the public library already.

Well, after reading Bush on his father, I was sort of interested in reading the memoir of George W. Bush's years as president. I never thought I would be interested in this book, but again, once I started, I couldn't stop. I think it's good to read these things now, when we're all trying to decide what to do for this election. An enlightening read, regardless of how you might view the decisions that Bush made. Bush himself admits he made mistakes, but he is also adamant about the fact that he was trying to do what was right.

Well, after all that heavy stuff, I needed something just for fun, so I read the last two mysteries in the Charles Lenox series. He is a gentleman detective in Victorian England. I read most of the other books a couple of years ago, but wasn't even aware that two more had come out since then! They are highly forgettable but very entertaining. I feel like the characters have lost a little bit of their real-ness as the series has progressed, but they are still fun stories.

This last book I found on the Reading List shelves. It is about the Navajo Code Talkers. It wasn't necessarily very well written, but it was kind of a good, quick intro to what the Navajo did for us in WWII. It's a new perspective to hear about the motivations of minority groups who fought for the US, and it confirms my belief that preserving language and culture does matter. 

Books, Books, Books

You guys, sometimes I read too much. Sometimes I read when I ought to be cleaning the house. So, the good news is I have some lovely books to blog about. I'm just going to brain dump what I thought about them in little snippets, okay? The bad news is...my sink is full of dishes right now.

Oh, well.

I first heard about this book in my 451 Theory class back in 2011, long before it was a movie. Room is told in the voice of a 5 year old boy who has lived in captivity with his mother his entire life. They escape their impenetrable shed halfway through the book and try to adjust to being in the world, and being free. This story is all the more poignant because it is told in the voice of a child. Somehow, that makes the darkness of the kidnapping and the struggles of Jack's mother a little more tolerable to consider, but also more repelling at the same time, if that makes sense. The whole thing is masterfully written and definitely makes you think. What is the most "real"? How do we deal with tragedy? What is bravery? What is so beautiful and sacred about the bond between parent and child? 

One thing I didn't like about the book... It definitely got a little political at times, which is inevitable considering the subject matter and the times in which we live. In one scene, Jack's mother discusses how she's okay with abortion and it's a choice that makes sense to her. For one thing, the topic felt out of place to me. But more importantly, this book is so beautifully about the affirmation of life and how the love between parent and child can save us. What does it say about our society that a book that covers these topics also feels the need to qualify these things? It really bugs me. 

A lot of people didn't like Go Set a Watchman when it came out. I'm not sure I loved it, partly because I just thought it was kind of slow. But I don't fault Lee for writing it the way she did, and about the topics she did. This book is less about racial relations in the United States, and more growing up. Scout learns that Atticus is not a perfect person, and she survives and becomes capable of making her own choices. Honestly, while I think some people would fault me for it, I liked Atticus the way he was presented in this book. The best heroes are flawed, just as the best villains have redeeming qualities. That's more like real life, isn't it? 

Out of all the books I've read this month, In the Heart of the Sea has the best ratings on Goodreads. First Greg and I watched the movie--about sailers who are lost at sea after their whaling ship is attacked by a sperm whale--and then I decided I wanted to read the book. A quick read, very interesting. While the section about cannibalism is hard to get through, I really liked the rest. And now I really, really want to visit Nantucket. 

This is a story about an 11 year old who solves a murder her father is framed for. I found the narrator to be both incredibly obnoxious and totally delightful. While I had a few problems with the way Bradley presents the arch of the detective story, I do think it's a cute and fun book. And I think it's the first book of a series, so I might just have to dig up the rest. 

August Books

Time to do the obligatory monthly reading post. I feel like I might be missing something, but anyway here are the books I remember reading in the last few weeks. 

I've been wanting to read this book for awhile. Elder Richard G. Hinckley came to my church ward when I was a young teenager and he quoted from this book in his talk, and since then, I've known I needed to read it. Don't know why it didn't happen til now. 

I think this is an absolutely beautiful book. It shows how Africans lived around the onset of apartheid in South Africa. The story of Stephen Kumalo's trip to Johannesburg to find his sister and his son, both who have turned to crime to support themselves in the city, discusses the issues surrounding urbanization, poverty, crime, tribal culture and the end of tribal culture, race, family dynamics and the importance of healthy family structures in society...there's just so much in here. Even though the book was about a preacher and societal issues, it never got "preachy." It just told a story about one family's sorrow in a way that was somehow simple and bare but also poetic. 

Mostly, though Cry, the Beloved Country is a story about forgiveness and compassion, and that's why it was beautiful. I thought the compassion demonstrated by the characters was all the more poignant because each and every character was presented as flawed, even very flawed. And I'm not talking about Absalom Kumalo, who committed murder. I'm talking about the heroes of the book. This  is just one of those stories that leaves me both thinking but also in peace. Even flawed people can commit great acts of charity, and even extremely flawed cultures can produce people who are capable of incredible love. Regardless of your opinion of how societal problems should be addressed, this book is an eye-opener. 

Okay, I've written too much already, so I'll just say, here are the other books I read: 

Some light comedy and some light economics. My favorite anecdote from the books above was about the social structure and economics of drug dealers in Chicago. DON'T DO DRUGS, JUST SAY NO. 

Public libraries are really some of my favorite places, and I mean that wholly without sarcasm. I have 6 or 7 books on hold at the library right now. It's nice to know I have good taste I guess...or at least the same taste as everyone else in Jacksonville? 

Read This Book...

...I mean play.

So, I am the only one who didn't know that the script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was going to be released in book form? I must have been living in a hole in the ground for the past few months, because honestly, I thought the play had already started in London a while ago.

So, I came into Cursed Child with very few expectations. I hadn't been thinking about it, so I didn't know what I thought it would be like. But I was excited to read it, if a little skeptical, which is why I spur-of-the-moment bought it on Amazon a few days after it came out.

I'll try not to give too many spoilers. But I'm feeling like I really need to vent/rant/purge myself of this here, so I make no promises.

I didn't like it. It's been a long time since I've read Harry Potter, and I don't think I'm enough of a super-fan that I was going to be automatically in love or automatically disappointed, if that makes sense. I've heard that the special effects for the play are amazing, and the actors are good, so I'm sure that adds a lot. And I'm used to reading plays in book form like this, so that didn't throw me off or anything. But still...I just didn't really like it.

I'm feeling lazy, so I guess the best way to organize my rant is in list form:

1. First off, characters. This play was not faithful to the dignity of the original characters. AT ALL. Ron. Every time Ron was "on stage" I just felt wildly cheated. Sure, Ron is supposed to be the comic relief. But he's also smart in his own way and full of more grit than he gets credit for--even if he struggles with self-confidence sometimes. The play-version of Ron was a hollow shell of a character, sort of like the ghost of Fred. And while Ron is the most vivid example of poor characterization, he was not the only one. I'm not sure if one character seemed really authentic to me. Maybe Ginny? It's not just the old characters who are cheated, it's also the new characters. The new characters aren't given convincing motivations for the actions they take, and that was very frustrating to me.

2. Holes in the plot. SPOILER ALERT...


....Time travel? Really? We all know you can't change time, right? There are no "other" realities. There is only what happened, and if someone went back in time, well, then, the effects of their actions would have originally existed. That's how it was in the third book. And of all the cool things that could have happened in Harry's life, why are we obsessed with time travel? There was a golden opportunity here to dissect Harry's future and the ramifications of all the amazing things that happened in Book 7, but instead the play just rehashes older books, and not in a flattering way. That's dumb. It's like there were no good ideas for the authors to run with, so they resorted to this. Annoying.

3. The deconstruction of the magical world. There are a few little things that just kept bugging me. It's like they tried to fit too much plot into the play, and to make things easier, they had to make things almost less magical. It was very easy for the younger characters to get away with doing stupid things because some of the rules of the magical world just didn't see to apply anymore, and that kind of convenient forgettery (just made that word up) in writing is lazy.

So there are lots of crazy things that happen in the play that I didn't discuss. I was actually more okay with unexpected twists and turns than I thought I would be. It was the bad writing that really got me. I mean, we all know that Harry Potter isn't the most wonderfully written book, right? Right. But it was complex and the characters were so real and the world was so believable and there were always beautiful messages about life at the core of the story. A lot of that was missing in the play.

So I'm basically going to treat Cursed Child like it is fan fiction. It's not part of the Harry Potter cannon, as far as I'm concerned. I don't read fan fiction, because I have better things to do with my time, and because usually it's bad. So what would be my recommendation for Cursed Child? Read it if it will drive you crazy not to. I think a lot of people like it more than I do, and that's fine. Whatever. But if you expect to see the real characters we all fell in love with, you might be disappointed

July Books

I've been reading a lot lately. So much I've been neglecting other stuffs I gotta do. But who ever really vacuums or cleans out their refrigerator anyway?

Here are the books I've read lately:

I could not stop laughing while I read this book. This guy is a Catholic comedian, so it's pretty clean. And absolutely hysterical. It's about him living with his 5 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment in New York. Greg and I would read together at night. Greg was finishing up Boys in the Boat and kept looking over at me because I couldn't stop giggling. 

This is a great book. It's about how our culture doesn't value cooking at home anymore, but there are a lot of benefits in doing that sort of stuff for yourself and now always being a "consumer." I like cooking, but this books still changed the way I thought about things. I do think American society today sort of has come to the conclusion that we should be paying other people to live our lives for us. We pay other people to decorate for us, cook for us, fix stuff in our houses, whatever. So while I didn't necessarily agree with all of Pollan's discussion points, I do like his overall theme that we shouldn't be afraid to live for ourselves. Really, that's a huge part of how I understand the gospel, too. 

This is the first time I've read any kind of Tolkien. I know, I know, I'm a book nerd and I should like Tolkien, blah blah blah. I have a lot of respect for Tolkien. I mean, the guy created a world, invented a language, and pioneered a genre. That's cool, you know? But...while I will finish the entire series at some point this year, I was not as impressed with The Lord of the Rings as I expected to be. Maybe I should have tried harder to keep track of all the bizarre names and stuff. (I didn't try that hard). I like Sam as a character and Strider, but that's kind of it. Frodo seems whiny to me. And what the heck is a balrog? Does anyone know? I guess it just wasn't as insightful as I wanted it to be. Epic-ly epic? Yes. Super insightful? Meh. 

I read this book as part of my family's book club. A sad book, but it ends with hope. I don't think Genova is an amazing writer necessarily, but she definitely is capable of taking something that seems distant and abstract--like early-onset Alzheimer's--and making you come to terms with the fact that this is a real, concrete problem for real people. That's a very valuable talent. 

I never know how to end these booky posts. So now I'm done. The end. Sayonara. Time to go make dinner. 

June Books

So this post is more for my own personal benefit than anything else. I still want to keep track of the books I'm reading so I can go back and review them at the end of the year. Now my inner book-girl nerd is coming out for the world to see. I'm okay with it.

I thought this was an excellent book. I thought maybe I wouldn't like it as much because it is about the invention of the airplane, and as much as I think airplanes are cool and all, I get bored reading mechanically-type stuff. But this book was never boring. The Wright Brothers have always been kind of enigmatic to me. After reading this I have a lot of respect for them. I would definitely recommend this one.

So I read this book in a couple hours this past weekend. It's about what you would expect for a middle grade novel. I read Surviving the Applewhites as a kid and loved it, so when I heard there was another one, I always was kind of on the lookout to read it. I was a little disappointed. Again, not sure if the first one was way before or if my response just has to do with the fact that I'm 15 years older and I have a degree in English now. Deep down inside, I'm still very satisfied I read it though. I had to see how the Applewhites were getting on these days. 

Man's Search for Meaning

This was my family's book club book for May, and I did finish it sometime last week, I just haven't had time to write about it. I have read books about the Holocaust before, but never one where the author then gave so much commentary about living in the concentration camp. Thinking about the event in the abstract actually made the Holocaust much more real for me, if that makes sense. I thought this was an incredible book.

One thing I kept thinking was how much of the concepts Frankl explained in discussing logotherapy and his camp experiences were gospel-centered precepts. At one point, Frankl discusses how the goal of psychiatry should not be to reach a "tensionless" state. Opposition has a purpose in refining us as individuals, and that doesn't have to make us sad. That's such a major part of my understanding of the gospel. Frankl's ideas reminded me God has designed us to thrive--or just be able to survive--in certain ways, and understanding these ways can come from so many different sources. The interesting thing is that unlike most books about the Holocaust, instead of convincing me of how much evil there is in the world, this book helped me to remember how much good there is. I think that's a testament to the amazing humility with which Frankl approaches his understanding of what happened to him.

Another concept I kept thinking about after finishing the book was Frankl's thought that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast should be mirrored by the Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. This was especially poignant to me because we actually just went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island this past weekend. A focus on responsibility would do so much good for our society, but a focus on the complementary nature of liberty and responsibility would do even more. I think living with the personal strength that these two things bestow is what encourages us to practice meaning-making in the powerful way that Frankl describes. To me, meaning-making that drives us to certain action is a good definition of courage. Courage comes from knowing you have not only the ability to act but also the responsibility to do so. Most people would say that those in concentration camps had neither of those things, but because Frankl sees meaning-making as man's highest purpose, he was able to understand, in kind of a reciprocal way, how he potentially also retained a shred of liberty and responsibility for his actions and his attitude, even in such a soul-crushing environment. I'm not sure I'm explaining this all very well, but I've always thought that courage is one of the most important values I could teach my children. It is courageous to be able to face your own suffering with the nobility that Frankl did. I think courage enables us to live with all of the other values that are important--faithfulness, kindness, anything.

Again, I'm not sure I've explained this all very well, but I'll just end by saying that I am very happy I read this book.

Two Very Different Books

Still trying to keep updated on the books I've been reading. In the last few weeks I finished two very different books. 

So, I'll come straight out and say that I don't think this book ^ was very well-written. But it's about the social context surrounding birth, and that's always interested me. A few parts I skipped or skimmed, mostly because certain parts were very blunt. I don't have any problems with bluntness (is that a word?), especially when it comes to birth and fertility. I think anybody could ask me anything and I'd be willing to talk about it. But some sections were just hard for me to read based on past experiences. I have a complicated relationship with the topic of giving birth. I think most, if not all, women who have tried to have children or have had children could probably say the same thing. 

So I found this little YA novel in the Springfield Township library. It's the second in a series. I read the first one--The Thief--when I was a young teenager and loved it. I loved it so much I must have read it three or four times at least, but I didn't even really know there were more. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with this one. While I was reading, I kept thinking, Well, that's stupid, or, Hey, that doesn't fit the character at all! I can't decide if the first book was really better or if my taste has just improved in the last ten years. Even though I kept being annoyed while reading, I have to concede that I'm definitely interested in reading the next book. Easy adventure books are a necessity every once in a while. 

Sorry, Another Reading Post

So I read this book, Do No Harm. 

Also, I want to show you a picture of the guy who wrote it, because he kind of looks like a really smart turtle. 

See what I mean? 

I randomly came across this book when I was looking for books I wanted for Christmas last year. And last week I found it at the library. In the spirit of full disclosure, this book does have some swears. I really wish it didn't. It's a memoir by a British neurosurgeon. Maybe it sounds kind of boring, but it's totally not. I love reading books from smart people, and since I obviously don't know anything about brain surgery, this was just a really interesting read. He talks about what it's like to go into the brain and some of his patients and I just loved it. A quick read, but a great one. I appreciated his honesty, with himself and with the reader. I will never look at doctors the same way again, and I think that's a good thing. They are just fallible people doing their best. 

Still Reading

So, even if these little posts about books I'm reading are annoying for other people, I have to say that I'm kind of loving it. I think it will be super fun to go over all the books I've read at the end of the year. Does that make me kind of weird? Probably. Oh well.

This past week I finished The Miracle of Forgiveness. It's an LDS classic written by President Spencer W. Kimball, but I had never read the whole thing cover to cover before. Out of everything in the book, I think there is one concept that I will always keep with me. President Kimball more than once refers to human beings as "gods in embryo." I love that. Maybe it's because Greg and I currently have 16 embryos in storage, but that metaphor seemed so apt to me. An embryo is partially formed, so undeveloped, so small. The difference between a six cell embryo and a fully grown adult who has experiences and ideas is monumental. And yet...embryos are just throbbing with potential. They are so vulnerable, but they are so endowed with power and possibility. I mean, just look at Brynn. Understanding all of this about embryos makes the concept of us being "gods in embryo" so beautiful. We are so small, and yet so precious.

I also finished The Boys in the Boat this past week. I loved it. It's about a college rowing team that took the gold medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Again, I have a real soft spot for anything related to American social history, especially during WWII. I liked how the author framed his story. He focused on one of the rowers, but he didn't shy away from recounting the larger context of Berlin in the pre-war years. It made the story more powerful because the author clearly had a deep respect for the people in the book, and he demonstrated that respect without glorifying the war era. Also, it's so interesting to learn about things that I'm so unfamiliar with...like rowing. The cool thing is, Philadelphia is a huge rowing city, and Greg and I are always admire Boathouse Row whenever we go downtown. So it was fun to learn about that while we were here. 

Brynn and I went to the library yesterday and I'm already working my way through a delightful and slightly morbid memoir. Coming soon! 

Finally Read That McCullough Book

I said I would keep posting about books I'm reading, and so here I am. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I haven't read this book before, especially since we borrowed it from my in-laws about five years ago. Last week I finished David McCullough's 1776.

You hear in elementary school about all the sacrifices regular soldiers made during the Revolutionary War, but it doesn't really sink in until you read the stories of individuals. Similarly, I always thought I had an appreciation for George Washington, but there was so much I just didn't know. At one point Washington's personal secretary and close friend totally lost faith in him, and was writing other generals about how inept Washington was. Washington's reaction was so humble and compassionate. Washington didn't have an amazing military mind at all--he was simply one flawed man who was willing to sacrifice for something he believed in. I love stories like this because I'm reminded that we don't have to be "great" before we do great things. Great things happen when we're willing to try our best in spite of having a clear knowledge of all our shortcomings.

On another note, Brynn's new favorite thing to do is play with the keys on the laptop while I'm typing. I'm going to let her write her first blog post:

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