Ahhh, I just love reading!! I'm the world's biggest nerd! I really wish I had more time. SO many good books and not enough time!! That's how I always feel. And I'm always looking for good recommendations, so please share if you've read a good one!! I sure hope Farmington has a good book club, 'cause if not, I will be starting one!
Cutting For Stone was a pretty interesting book. But you have to get past the beginning! I'm still kind of amazed that I kept at it, because the first 50 pages or so are very hard to read. But once you get into the story, it grabs you and you feel connected to the characters. It's about these twin boys that grow up in Ethiopa and it focuses on one twin, Marion, and his life growing up near the hospital that his parents are both doctors at. I would recommend it, but it is VERY long. Longer than Gone With the Wind kind of long. And I wouldn't call it an easy read. You don't whip through the pages. And since it's fiction, I struggled with feeling like I wasted a lot of time by the end (because I'm weird, and feel like I always need to be reading a true story or learning something), but it was a really good story. The author is from Ethiopa, so I think the circumstances and descriptions of the country and people were accurate, so I liked getting a glimpse into what life might be like living there.
This was an AMAZING book! It's a true story about a man named Louis Zamperini. (And I LOVE true stories.) He competed in the Olympics right before serving in WWII as a bombardier in the Air Force. His plane was shot down over the Pacific, but he survived over 7 weeks on a life raft. Then he was taken as a POW by the Japanese, where he was tortured for two years. I didn't know a human body could endure so much and live. He was beaten continually, starved, worked to the brink of death and stripped of any dignity. It is absolutely the most extraordinary story I've ever read. His will to live is incredible. No summary could ever do it justice. You HAVE to read this book!
This was one I read for book club. It's a memoir about a memoir, so to speak. The author writes about his life and how he felt he needed to change it. It's an introspective book. His writing is very simple, but deliberate. I remember a few times when reading, I wanted to highlight some poignant sentences, but alas, it was a copy from the library and I was too lazy to grab a pen and paper! His underlying message is how we each get to live our own story, and the story can have direction, or be uneventful, or adventurous, or service-oriented, etc. but YOU have to make that happen. There were some inspiring stories that I liked. One was about a successful man that never watched TV. But, he would write every memory he had about his life when it popped into his head. He had (if I remember right) something like 5,000 pages of memories about his life. That's amazing to me! That's something I would like to do. I am a "documentor" by nature anyway. Then there was the story about the incredibly wealthy family in California that had all sorts of family problems until they gave up their luxuries to live together in a cabin in Montana or something for like a year. But once they went back to their mansion, the problems came back and even the teenage daughter, sitting in her hot tub with everything in world admitted that she like her life and family better back in Montana where they had nothing. That really hit me.
Anyway, I liked it. It's a really quick read... I finished in a day. I'd recommend it, but not above Unbroken. :)
Oh, so much to say about this book! Whenever parenting books are brought up, this one seems to get mentioned as a favorite, so I knew I wanted to read it. Overall, I liked the ideas, but I had a million questions! I didn't feel like I understood it well enough to fully apply it to my parenting techniques. I needed like a seminar or the author next to me to ask questions while I read it. I liked that it focused on natural consequences, but I felt it started too young. At least for some things! For example, if your kid doesn't want to eat his dinner, then don't make him! Set the timer for 15 min. so dinner isn't all night long, and when it beeps, dinner is over and there is no more food til breakfast. If the child gets hungry and asks for more food, you say, "I'm sorry you're hungry (and not sarcastically! Be compassionate). I'm hungry too when I don't eat all my dinner. I'll make sure you get a big breakfast." You're supposed to let his hunger teach him to eat his dinner, not you constantly telling him. I liked the part about allowances. Allowances should be a mandatory thing, not earned, but then kids have to use it and pay you if they mess up. For example, they are awful at the grocery store. Then, next time you get a sitter and they have to use their own money to pay the sitter because they misbehaved at the store last time you took them. Obviously, this is all surface stuff, but I did like a lot of the ideas. I think the hardest part is the wording. The way you word everything is supposed to make what you say into a statement that puts them in control instead of a demand on your part. You shouldn't issue orders, because a child's natural response is to resist. Instead of saying, "Stop whining", you should say, "I'll be happy to listen to you when you talk to me in a polite way" or something like that. Another way to avoid issuing demands is to give your kid choices. If they don't want to leave the park, you don't yell, "Get over here or you're in trouble!" you say something like, "Would you like to leave with your feet on the ground (implying they walk with you to the car) or would you like to go with your feet in the air (meaning you'll have to pick them up)" Those choices would only work with a child small enough to pick up and would only be effective for a kid that doesn't like being carried, but you get the picture! Anyway, do try to use some of the techniques, but I'd really like a Parenting With Love and Logic PartII!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is crazy interesting. It's a type of biography about the cells of Henrietta Lacks that were the first cells to ever be kept alive outside of the human body. In fact, her cells are still being used in research and labs today. Now, I kind of hate science. Never was my forte. And this book talks a LOT about science, but in a way you can understand, so it's interesting. It also delves into the laws and ethics of cell and tissue donation, which is something I never knew about before. It's not a super easy read, but it's hard to put it down. And I love books where I feel like I've learned something. And you definitely learn a lot about history, biology, and the culture surrounding cell research, not to mention Henrietta's life and her family's. This is a good read!
While talking about books with some friends, the author Bill Bryson was brought up. Everyone was raving about him and said you couldn't pick a bad book written by him, so I decided to put it to the test. And they were right. He is an amazing author. This is really nerdy, but sometimes I would just read one his sentences and brim with envy! He is a truly talented author. The type that could write about water boiling and you'd think it was the most interesting time of your life. And so it went with the subject matter of this particular book. He chronicles his adventures trying to walk the Appalachian Trail and it's funny, informative, interesting and thought provoking, even while to me, hiking is completely boring. There were a few "environmentalist soap box" parts that I could have done without, but overall it was a good book. I don't know if I'd recommend it unless you love hiking or want to know about mountain ranges and trees on the east coast, but I would recommend him as an author.
Don't judge a book by its cover, right? Well, this book was as {peculiar} as the cover! We read it for book club and I was excited about it, because I had heard good things, but by the end, I was a bit disenfranchised. The story itself is very clever. It takes all these odd, old time photos and weaves them into a story. The photos are real, but the story is not. And as I've mentioned, I like real stories! :) It starts out realistic, but about mid way it gets {weird}. And then it gets {really weird}. And I had a hard time imagining everything. I might have just read it too fast, but all the details were confusing and I didn't feel like I really understood the time frames or "rules" regarding the creatures and loops. But I was in the minority, because I'm pretty sure everyone else really liked it. So if you like {peculiar fiction}, this is the book for you! :)
