Book of the Week: The Year of Living Biblically

I recently finished reading The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. Can I just tell you, A.J. Jacobs writes hilarious! In this book, Mr. Jacobs, a self-described agnostic, spends a year attempting to follow the laws and rules of the Bible as literally as possible. Although he often takes this to extremes that were surely not intended in The Word, it's rollicking fun to read anyhow.

The author reasons that since the Old Testament is more substantial than the New, he devotes 3/4 of the year specifically to attempting to fulfill Jewish law, figuring he'd leave the last 1/4 year primarily to New Testament commands. Mr. Jacobs, though not practicing any particular faith (prior to the experiment), is from Jewish roots. I think his pursuit of fulfilling Old Testament commands rings truer than his abbreviated focus on the New Testament. Possibly, he feels more connection to his Jewish heritage and it shows. I mean, a person could spend a whole year just trying to fulfill the directives that Jesus gave. (There's an interesting book concept as well.) There were a lot of potential subjects he could have canvassed in the New Testament that he never mentioned. (For example, I don't think he ever mentioned Communion.)

Anyway, I greatly enjoyed his forays in the weirder and more extreme religious tangents that exist. He met with Jews who sacrifice chickens, had his wardrobe dissected by a man trained to find mixed threads in fabric, sought out fruit from trees that were older than four years, went to a snake-handling church and built a hut (can't recall the Hebrew name for it) in his Manhattan apartment. Pretty funny visual, there.

He found that sometimes, even following laws whose purpose is not known, or that are generally disregarded in modern society, still can lead to peace and well-being. Examples of this are: wearing white garments, observing the Sabbath and avoiding certain foods. He also found that participating in rituals where he initially was uncomfortable, such as daily prayer, ultimately becomes integral to daily life.

This book was fascinating. I enjoyed it all the way through. If you're one to take your faith very seriously, you might not appreciate his literal application of verses you consider metaphorical, but it's still a vibe read if you can see humor in the sacred.

Book of the Week: "Mr. Darcy's Diary"

I recently finished reading Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange. Since I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, I expected to enjoy this book as well. The author writes the storyline of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of Mr. Darcy. This was one of those books that started out great but left me a little cold at the end. For the first 3/4 of the book, the author wrote very convincingly. I could barely perceive a difference between the character designed by Ms. Austen herself more than a hundred years ago and the voice given by the modern-day Amanda Grange. This was not so much true as the book came to a close. Grange's version of Mr. Darcy comes to see the light too completely to be believed. He suddenly has no difficulty seeing his former behavior as arrogant and wrong. People don't usually come around one hundred percent, even if they do come around. It would have been truer if we could still get little glimpses of Darcy thinking he's all that.

Nevertheless, this book is a great diversion for P&P fans. I didn't mind terribly making it through the less-believable final quarter. If you like Jane enough to be depressed that there won't be any new novels out of her, might as well give this one a read. Darcy is a great character anyway, and I didn't mind spending 320 pages in his head.

Book of the Week: "Have a Little Faith"

I recently finished reading Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith. I give it Five Stars.

The book is a look at faith through the eyes of Mitch's childhood Jewish Rabbi, "Reb," and a hard-luck, reformed criminal Christian pastor in Detroit, named Henry. Mitch's eloquent descriptions left me feeling like I knew Reb, or wishing I could meet him. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's open admission of having drifted away from his Jewish roots and his willingness to tell the truth about the challenge of keeping faith. I still find that challenge personally mysterious and at the same time, I have an awed regard for those who seem to find it easy, as Reb and Henry are depicted.

How interesting it must have been for the author to find similarities in the midst of such contrast: a Jewish Rabbi from an affluent community vs. an African-American pastor in the ghetto. Yet they both sang through their sermons. They both lost a child. By astounding coincidence, they both were nicknamed "Reb" by followers. And they both demonstrate the open, accepting, merciful love of God. I think Mitch Albom was moved by it. I certainly was.

I highly recommend Have a Little Faith to anyone who is open towards what God means to different people, or how God applies to themselves.

Outliers

I really dig that new picture in my header, but I have no bloomin' clue how to make it smaller than Goliath. Bear with me while I figure that out. I'm not the least bit techy.

The book I read this past week was Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I found it fascinating! It certainly inspired me to do well in my homeschooling endeavors, as well as my self-education efforts.

In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that shape people, or groups of people, into exceptions in their field. It examines individuals, (Bill Gates, Bill Joy, The Beatles) as well as population segments, such as professional hockey players and the success of Asians in mathematics. The findings are striking and, often, surprising. It's not necessarily amazing talent that defines the successful, and not necessarily pure brain power. Practice, it turns out, really does make perfect, as it has been found again and again that the most successful have put in thousands of hours of practice - right around 10,000 hours, in fact. The 10,000-hour rule was exciting to me. It demonstrates how mastery is achieved by anyone committed to the time and effort to become exceptional.

I also found the findings on longer school hours (mostly in other countries) very interesting. It showed very plainly the set-backs incurred by a long summer break. It validates my belief that my kids should continue with Math, at the very least, throughout the summer.

Two thumbs up for Outliers. It's a fascinating book that demonstrates that success is achievable for anyone with the chutzpah to seek it.

The Mysterious Benedict Society - Book Week 8

I have just finished reading The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart. As "kid lit" goes, this one is fairly good. I'm not sure if you'd call this Sci-Fi or a mystery, but it's somewhere between those two. The lead character is Raynard Moulden, a gifted orphan, who gets an opportunity to be part of a special mission. He and his orphaned cohorts form The Mysterious Benedict Society and act as spies at their weird special school, The Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened (L.I.V.E., as displayed on their red school flag...or is it EVIL?) Stewart does one fine job of crafting suspense. I didn't have to go far from one spine-tingling "Whatever will they do?" musing to the next. As the climax comes along, the story is moving at break-neck speed. However, the Denouement crashed along much too rapidly. So many threads had been lain down, it was bewildering to have them all explained away and everything tied up much too neatly in the last few pages.

The setting was a little baffling and left me feeling ungrounded far into the book. I'm not sure if Stoneytown Harbor and Nomanson Island are real places (in America?) or purely fictional. Later in the book, Holland is mentioned and so is Zambia, so apparently, it's on our "real" earth. But where? I gotta say that bugged me quite a lot. Maybe I somehow missed this important point, but either way, it never registered.

There was a wonderful plot twist regarding the character named Milligan that was a total delight. However, new information on the character named Constance Contraire was completely preposterous. Gotta love that wonderful name-crafting, though. Constance Contraire! What a perfect name for the character who is constantly contrary!

All-in-all, a clever book and an entertaining read. Kids in the 8-12 age range, especially boys, will most likely enjoy it.

Book a Week - Week Three

I'm sorry I'm all over the map on my blog, folks. I know I'm supposed to be posting about The Love Dare, but I've fallen off the dare wagon. I'm also a few posts behind on my general life stuff that I mean to do. And now, I've gone and added this Book a Week challenge with my buddies from The Well-Trained Mind forums.

*sigh* Anyway...I just finished reading A Simple Christmas by Mike Huckabee. It was an enjoyable read. I felt that I needed something relaxing and not too cerebral. This book met that need.

My complaint about the book is that it's not tightly edited. He takes three pages to say what would fit on one. There were also a few glaring word clashes. Once he said something like, "I can't verify the veracity of..." That almost hurt my ears. Two such similar words clanging together like that. Also, I got tired of every chapter ending with the refrain..."a simple Christmas. I realize he's trying to bring the theme back around each chapter but it got dull. Okay, Mike, it's a simple Christmas. We know.

Still, a very pleasant read. Good stories in there that really make you chuckle when you think of your own eccentric uncles or chain-smoking cousin or whatever oddballs make up your family history. Funny stuff.

So my book for this coming week is "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen. I have never read that one before. I'm enjoying the language and the character development just as much as all the other Austen novels. Her word-craft rocks the house, people!

Unconditional Love

Today's Dare is about unconditional love. I've pondered it before.

I would say that most happy, lasting marriages are not truly founded in unconditional love. It would not be true to say that I would stay married no matter what, that nothing Kelly could do or become could thwart my love for him. I'm just guessing, but I think it's true from his end, too. Yes, True love is long-suffering and tolerant; it doesn't look for a reason to part company. And yes, there is an element of choosing to stay married. But still. Unconditional love? I don't even think that is healthy, let alone practical.

If my husband smacked me around, drained the bank account to buy a boat, was cruel to the kids, kicked the dog and didn't go to work, would I stay? No. I would not. If I took a job as a stripper, left the kids alone while I partied, stayed mysteriously away from home on occasion, failed to buy food and couldn't explain all those calls on my cell phone, would he stay? No. He would not. I would even hope that he respected himself better than to subject himself and our kids to such a life.

Now, if we want to talk tolerant love, okay, I'm in. You stay with your mate even if they never put their clean clothes away, leave the suitcase in the hall for a month after a trip, bring the car home with the tank on E and forget to take out the recycling. Although that suitcase-in-the-hall thing is really annoying. But, yeah, you stay.

Today's dare still works fine, even if you question unconditional love. This is the Dare:

Do something out of the ordinary today, something that proves to you and to them that your love is based on your choice and nothing else. Wash her car, clean the kitchen, buy his favorite dessert, fold the laundry. Demonstrate love to them for the sheer joy of being their partner in marriage.

What do you think, dear readers? Do you love your spouse unconditionally? Do you think that is the ideal?