Dad's Book Club: The Great Gilly Hopkins and The Higher Power of Lucky

This year, one of Dawna's goals was to create a "Read it-see-it" book club with some friends.  The first book the girls picked out was this:

To be honest, I'd never heard of it before the Ringleins suggested we read it. So we checked it out and Dawna read it... and Jon read it... and then I read it... and it was a good read! A moving coming-of-age story as one young foster child learns how to be part of a pieced together family. And then learns how her own selfish and hasty actions could change her life forever...

The movie was also very enjoyable.  It's set in a more modern time frame than the book was, but still carried the message well. We watched it over at the Ringlein's house and had a very good discussion with the girls after, comparing and contrasting the book and the movie, discussing thematic elements... next time I'll have to take notes so I can blog better about it...

Bottom line: recommended!

But Dawna's Read it-See it club isn't the only place we're getting story time these days... You see, Dawna was recently moved up to the competitive climbing team at The Peak, which means practices three times each week... sigh... I feel like a real commuter now... between Dawna's climbing and Xochitl's gymnastics, I'm driving about 40 min. to and from practices 4 out of 5 days a week... So I thought I'd make better use of the drive time by checking out books on CD from the library (yes, I know about Audible, but my old '07 Odyssey has a great 6-disk CD player, and no Aux input, so books on CD it is...)

In the last two weeks driving around town for sports, we've listened to an entire book:

...the Newbery winner from 2007.  Also a fun book to read. Lucky, the main character, is just 10 years old, Dawna's age right now, and Lucky's mannerisms and behavior were perfect for that age, I thought! Lucky lives in a little town called Hard Pan, CA, with her guardian after her mother died. Lucky is smart, always doing her homework so she can be a world famous scientist someday.  Lucky is brave, chasing snakes out of clothes dryers and staying calm in dust storms. Lucky is thoughtful, considering questions such as "What is my higher power?" But most of all, Lucky is still just a little girl who needs to feel secure and loved, which makes me think of my baby Dawna... who is not much of a baby anymore, but just like Lucky, needs to be picked up and snuggled from time to time so she can remember how much she is loved!

Bottom line: recommended... but be advised there is a somewhat lengthy chapter involving a dog's scrotum...parental discretion (or better yet, discussion...) is advised :)

SO... we're on to a new Read it-See it assignment and new discs in the car...

Oh what do you do on a Four-Day Weekend?!?!

The better question is: What DON'T you do on a four-day weekend! NUSD gave the teachers a work day Friday, and Monday was president's day, so we had a fun stay-cation style weekend, including...

Friday at the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose!
Xochitl walked the most laps of any kindergarten student in this year's Walk-a-Thon, so she won herself a pass to the museum (the rest of us had to pay...big time... not my favorite kind of place in that the parents have to pay the $13 entry fee to watch your kids play all day, but it is a nice place anyway...and PS, my kids would not TOUCH the "organic" ketchup at the food shed. Please bring on the emulsifiers)

I digress... we spent a fun-filled five hours there exploring every inch of the place! Overall, the favorite places were the water play area and the giant bubble place. Other enjoyable moments included face painting (the kids paint their own faces while looking in a mirror) the play food pizza restaurant, complete with menus featuring pizza with broccoli (Congratulations, San Franciso, you ruined pizza!), and an early childhood development intern from Stanford doing research on language acquisition! Poor daddy had to go to work, but we got to play!

Which brings us to...Friday night sleepover! Nana and Papa offered to take the kids for a sleepover! Sweet! We dropped off the kids in Fremont and then went to set up for our massive stake event, then went out for a massive steak at Texas Roadhouse! We were going to go out to a movie, but ended up renting Bridge of Spies and watched at home (Great film, by the way...).

After a great sleep-in with no kids around in the morning, we spent Saturday getting ready for the stake 50th anniversary kickoff party. (I know it's not a great picture up there, but that's a 3ft. 5-0 outlined with Christmas lights, filled in with cupcakes. So cool!) Jon and I are on the planning committee and were in charge of some entertainment for the dance... I mean... party with dancing. We created a pretty awesome crossword of stake presidents and wards of the Fremont stake, a giant word search hiding the names of 100 bishops over the last 50 years, and also brought along our giant Jenga game we made last Thanksgiving.

All things considered, it was a great party. Around 200 in attendance, plenty of yummy goods and live music. I provided a "historical anecdote" and a song from each decade throughout the night. There were not very many young couples there (as I expected). I tried (and failed) to get a babysitter for the night. But at the very end, Becca and Isaac showed up. I don't know why, but I was SO happy to see them--my stressed spirits just lifted when Becca let me pull her around and show her all the stuff we made for the party.  Anyway, they made it in time for a couple dances and a great game of Jenga! 

 My awesome ninja kids stayed out of sight for the entire evening, watching movies in my mom's seminary room. Dawna had her Chrome book and texted me from time to time asking for snacks and desserts... it was fun.  They got to come out at the end to help "clean up," aka, build with the giant Jenga blocks.

For all my stubborn antagonism about the "50th Anniversary" of the stake, I have really come to appreciate the saints that settled this area and worked so hard for the early Fremont Stake. In preparing for the activity, I read (several times) the book: Let This be Zion.

I learned how much the saints had to sacrifice and work to build their own buildings with their own hands and their own resources. They were tough. 

 My family is well represented in the book, since my parents moved to Fremont over 30 years ago. One of the earliest memories of church service is my dad being in the stake presidency. I got to know President "Grandpa Turkey" Taylor and Bro. Stewart very well over the decade my dad served with them. Pres. Taylor later sealed Jon and I in the Oakland Temple and and Bro./Dr. Stewart is still the only dentist office I've ever gone to. We were and are greatly blessed by my dad's service; and I was blessed to have the assignment to learn about my family's place in the history book of our stake.

 Monday, Jon and Lynn headed out to New Melones to go climbing and the kids and I cleaned up the house and then went to the brand new NewPark AMC theater to see King Fu Panda 3! Whew. Good times on the weekend... Time to face up to school.

Dad's Book Club: Go Set a Watchman and The Wright Brothers

So, Dad and I swapped books for our birthdays this year (which happen to be only 10 days apart, by the way...) I got him a book that I really enjoyed listening to while training for the marathon: The Wright Brothers. He got me a book that he wanted to read: Go Set a Watchman. In honor of our great thinking alike minds, here's a bit about my experience with each one:

I absolutely adore "To Kill a Mockingbird." I mean, who doesn't? This novel should be read as what it was intended: a draft, a study, an experiment that led to TKAM. Harper Lee is still hilarious, still an exceptional story teller with quippy dialogue and moments that fill you with nostalgia for your own growing up years. I love the way she retold some horrifyingly embarrassing moments from Jean Louise's childhood. All in all, fun to read, good laughs, and a nice appendix piece for TKAM. Obviously, it's not the most polished work of literature. Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure I understand what she was getting at with Atticus and Jean Louise having the fight of their life in his office... did Uncle Jack really set it all up? Was Jean Louise really discovering herself or just discovering that her "Finch" background is both an advantage and an excuse? Who can really tell... but in the mean time, the anecdote about the "falsies" discovered on the high school marquee was pretty much my favorite. I missed Jem... but I suppose it would have been too much for Scout to have two great men in her life...

I loved listening to this book as I was running.  It's rare that I enjoy a non-fiction book, but this one was inspirational and interesting. I loved learning about Kitty Hawk and the family dynamics of the Wrights. Those boys were protected from so many things, so many close calls avoided. I love that they were emphatic about not working on Sundays. Their determination was amazing. Their ideas were incredible. Great to listen to, and Dad says it's also good to read. 

Goodbye July Stop 5, aka The Long One

After hitting four stops in under two weeks, we were ready for a change of pace. Our next stop was in Lehi, UT at my sister's house, and we were going to stay there for two weeks... yesssssssss! We had more than a few fun times in our weeks there, including but not limited to:

Backyard Microadventure! One of the first nights at the Reeves, the kids embarked on a microadventure sleeping outside on a tarp. Everything was going wonderfully until about 3am, when the rain began to fall... from the basement where I was sleeping, it sounded like a stampede when all five girls came barreling in with their sleeping bags and mats. At 5:30, Heather bounded through the house remembering that the sprinklers were still on, right past the sleeping mass on the living room floor.  It wasn't until after the sprinklers were safely off that she realized they could have gone on anyway... quite the adventurous night it was...

Visiting BYU museums! In one day we hit all three museums on campus: the dinosaur museum, the MOA and the Bean Museum. Bones, art, and wildlife all in one day!



...not to mention the Eyring Science center... Look out! 10,000 Ohms!!! <>


Hiking the Y! Super awesome family night activity... and apparently lots of people thought so... even at sunset, the trail was extremely busy and the parking lot was totally full. The girls and dads continued past the Y to Mouse Rock while the moms and boys headed home and made dinner, which was eaten close to 11pm. Epic FHE!

And then one day, the dishwasher started to smell funny. Heather started a load while I went to pick up Emma from band, and when I got back, there was an exciting story to tell... Electrical fire from the control panel, water spraying out of the dishwasher, Jon on headphones, breakers thrown, black thick smoke... I missed all the fun, but I got to hear about it many times. So, it was dishwasher shopping date night for Jon and I and Heather and Rob :) After seeing every dishwasher on the Wasatch Front, they finally decided on one and we got it installed on the very last day in Lehi!

Out with the old... 

In with the new!

 Food Adventures! We learned that Emma is very particular about organizing her chopped tomatoes...
 
And we also helped Abbie with some mission prep by having her try some new foods like shrimp, Mochi, and California Rolls.

We enjoyed swimming at the Lehi Legacy Center and going out to two movies, but most of the time, the kids just had a blast around the house eating sour grapes right off the vine, exploring the gravel pit, swinging and breaking the swings, and finding all kinds of good uses for the stairs:

Apparently, Jade is exactly as tall as the stairs are wide

And then everyone wanted in on the action. 

These two boys seemed to love their pseudo-brother time. Sisters just don't appreciate things like cars, garbage trucks, sewer sweepers, and gutters. Larry and Isaac were nearly inseparable the entire time. Once they even did the dishes together...though most of the time if chores were to be found, the boys were not...

And let's not forget the homework. Abbie got me all excited about picking out books for her honors English summer assignments. In two weeks we read Smile and The Secret Life of Bees.Both are excellent reads and hopefully brought some new insights about literature to our soon to be High-Schooler! The other kids all worked diligently on their homework and piano practicing and I continued on with my training. The most fun run I did was running from Heather's house to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and then back again, covering 12 miles and amazingly, the run was mostly on a trail! Heather biked along with me on many of my runs and I even got Hannah and Dawna out biking with me one day.  Suffice it to say we got great use out of the Murdock Canal trail.

Visiting LaNae! One of my darling triplet cousins! I miss this girl so much! It was such a treat to see her with her cute boys in her cute house with two trampolines and a toy room! My kids were begging and making me promise to come back again by the time we had to go.

As you can see, Stop Five in our Goodbye July boasted plenty of excitement, accomplishments, and love, not to mention plenty of rest and relaxation in random places:

Jade hasn't quite mastered eating while sleeping, but she tries nonetheless...

No, Dawna is not sleeping with toilet paper! Those were streamers from Emma's birthday!

The Reeves home is a sanctuary of peace and love. Every moment there was uplifting, inspiring, and fun! Makes me want to make my home a cleaner, more loving, more Gospel Centered place. Many thanks to Heather and Rob for loaning out their basement to us for 14 days!!!

Dad's Book Club: Dear Mr. Henshaw

Today I finished the book Dear Mr. Henshaw.  I enjoyed reading it very much (keep in mind that I particularly enjoy adolescent literature).  I'm not a huge fan of all things Beverly Cleary, but this book had an honest tone and the young Leigh Botts learns and grows in significant ways without some bizarre twist... just a regular kid growing up, adjusting to life after his parent's divorce. He learns about building friendships and finding faith in yourself and taking baby steps towards big dreams. I love that he learns by writing. Things he doesn't know about himself at the beginning, he discovers through expression in a diary. Plus he starts getting better grades because of it, too! The book is written as a series of letters to his favorite author (Mr. Henshaw) and diary entries. Cleary did an amazing job making the first passages sound like C+ homework, and then, by the end of the story, writing in an A style, if you know what I mean.

Bottom line: Very recommendable! Good read!

Dad's Book Club: Charlotte's Web

Dawna recently completed her first book report.  We did a "read-aloud" of Charlotte's Web. She loved every bit and loved watching and comparing the movie to the book.

I thought I should include her thoughts and ideas about the book as part of my "Dad's Book Club" blog post series :)  Dawna and I decided to create a web of our own as part of the report.  We discovered that writing words in a spider web is quite difficult.  Props to Charlotte...

Dawna and her "Joyful" web

      

 "Charlotte is a gray spider. She wrote in her web and saved a pig too!

If I were Charlotte's friend I would want her to write joyful in her web because I want people to know I am joyful. They can be my friend because I

am a happy person." 

--Dawna Koberstein

Dad's Book club: The Midwife's Apprentice

I am on a quest to read all the Newbery Medal books.  Lucky for me, there is a separate bookshelf at our library, making them easy to find :).  This week's pick is The Midwife's Apprentice, (by Karen Cushman) which I rather enjoyed.  I find reading about midwifery very interesting, and in this case a bit frightening.  I am quite glad nobody rubbed boiled slugs on my belly to help induce contractions. Gross...

But that's not the point of the book. It's about a poor orphan girl who is finding a place in the world for herself.  At first she is called Beetle by the entire village because she often slept in the dung heap for warmth. She is not afraid to work and tries hard to do good.  Her most important lesson is summed up in her own words, "I know how to try and risk and fail and try again and not give up." This is her moment when she decides who (and what) she wants to be: the midwife's apprentice

Dad's Book Club: The Hunger Games

I have to admit that the reason I picked up this book was just because it's a popular thing. Also, because I wanted to buy an e-book from Amazon and read it on my iPad, and this seemed as good a choice as any. However, I have to admit that I honestly really enjoyed reading it (actually reading the whole series) despite its fadish-ness (if that's even a word).

The premise is a little disturbing--kids having to fight each other to the death?!? Yuck. As a mom, not my favorite thing to read about. I was glad it was a book at some points so I could just gloss over a paragraph or two, skip a few gory details, and just figure out who died. I'm still not sure I'll be able to handle the movie... I mean... ew.

It took me a good 40 pages to adjust to Collins's writing style. She likes to use fragments. A lot. Without warning. Doesn't always flow so well. Read the first few chapters twice, then go on.

The first book is definitely geared towards an adolescent audience, with the classic appeal to teenagers of an "adults-can't-handle-it-so-now-I-have-to-save-the-day" attitude. Katniss, the 12-year-old, is the one that could save her family from starving, not her mom or aunts or uncles or any other adults, for they are not trustworthy. You can't really blame her for this attitude. Most of the adults she comes in contact with are sniveling, deceitful, and even bloodthirsty.

It's not a problem for Katniss to have this attitude; it's actually very natural... but since the story is written from her point of view, a reader must take it into account when evaluating the other characters. Remember, Katniss is young. Katniss doesn't always know what Katniss is doing. Katniss is still growing up. Just keep that in the back of your mind as you read, and don't be to quick to judge the other characters just because Katniss does.

As the series progressed, I was very impressed at the way Collins handled some rather difficult topics. The one that stuck out the most to me was her attempt to answer the question: "How can a person return to normal life after facing war?" (or something along those lines) I liked her answer. As I read it, it's something like this: Well, you can't really return to normal life after experiencing warfare. But that doesn't mean you're doomed. You need support, you need productive things to do, and you need something to look forward to. Then, you will probably be ok.

True, it's not the happiest of endings, but more importantly, I think it's honest, and even hopeful. And I like that.

Dad's book club: Anne of Green Gables

Finally, after 27 years of life and a hundred times watching the movie, I read the book.

All in all, I loved it. It is sweet and sincere and fun. It is not an action-packed story, not even necessarily exciting. The story just ambles on at a lazy, comfortable pace... Much like a summer in Avonlea. Actually, it was so relaxing that I actually fell asleep reading it a time or two. But honestly, that only added to its charm.

This isn't the first time I've tried to read this book... I was unsuccessful in elementary school and high school: never made it past the first few chapters. But I'm old. I finally can appreciate the easy steadiness in the tempo. Not to mention, I can finally understand all the lavish descriptions Anne gives.

Lucy Montgomery is really quite an artist with words. I was considerably taken by this passage, describing a simple fire:

"Anne was curled up Turk-fashion on the hearthrug, gazing into that joyous glow where the sunshine of a hundred summers was being distilled from the maple cordwood."

I mean...WOW!!! Just go back and read that again...wow.

On the more sentimental side, Montgomery is spot on as well. Marilla's internal reverie on Anne brought me to tears...three times! Moms are just mushy that way, I guess.

The story doesn't grip you and pin you down like a Harry Potter or Twilight or Hunger Games does. Rather, it waits patiently for you to come, like an old friend who was always there for you,something which you took for granted... For 27 years.

Bottom line, I loved it...when I came to it in my own due time.

Dad's Book Club: The Help

In the tradition of Dad's greatness, he gave this book to me for Christmas, it having been recommended by JoAnn and Co. Historical Fiction is not usually my favorite, but this book masterfully portrayed vernacular speech (and attitude) and told a very engaging story (not to mention, one of the main characters does what I've always dreamed of doing—[and I was going to write it here, but realized that would spoil most of the book])

In a point-of-view-shifting first person account, I found myself intensely wrapped up in a part of history —and believe me, keeping my attention and interest on historical events is a Herculean feat, so well done, Kathryn Stockett! Instead of dryly discussing the events and feelings about desegregation in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi, Stockett places us in the shoes of Aibileen, Minny, and Miss Skeeter. Aibileen's motherly love for seventeen white babies (plus one boy of her own) that she raised gives strength to her resolve to...make the teacups stop rattling? Yes, that's right. And Minny, who has broken every rule of proper behavior to the white lady begins to discover that those very rules she thought forced upon her by the white ladies may only have force because of her own self-perception. Finally, Miss Skeeter...a true to life, true to herself lady out, at first, to make a name for herself decides that giving a voice to the voiceless (to use a cliché), may best be done anonymously.

Unfortunately, because of the subject matter, there are incidents of violence, hatred, and fear; nonetheless, Stockett handles them well—producing the desired disdain for the acts with minimal gore. I think even mom could handle it. :) What a beautiful piece of work! I was very moved and even found myself a little teary-eyed at the end. A must read for all adults in the family (but proceed with caution for younger readers). Excellent pick for Dad's Book Club!

Dad's Book Club: The Mysterious Benedict Society

This book was recommended by a junior high school teacher friend of mine. Apparently it's all the rage for seventh and eighth graders. (I think Levi would like it a lot--if he hasn't already read it) It looks to be the start of a series, but I believe this is the only one currently published.

The book is an enjoyable light read, definitely adolescent literature genre. Sticky, Constance, Kate, and Reynie, despite their unfortunate upbringing with no reasonable families to speak of, are all children of remarkable skill and intelligence. They all must pass tests and prove their unique abilities in order to take on a challenge to save the world. The beginning of the book is particularly fun to read. As the kids are presented with riddles and questions, the author doesn't reveal the answer, leaving the reader to try to figure it all out before the kids do. After a fun opening, it turns a little hokey and apocalyptic... “If you fail in this quest, All is LOST!” explains Mr. Benedict as they are embarking... no pressure... Once the kids are in the process of working on their quest, the books reads a little like molasses: slow going and not exactly sweet to the taste. However, in spite of a slow middle development of plot, the ending pulls through to be interesting and fun once more— thanks to the Gemini and three candles. Clever.

Overall, I'd give it a high recommendation for youth readers, and a middle recommendation for adult readers. Relaxing, delightful read, but don't plan to be particularly moved or inspired to save the world... especially since you have to be an orphan genius to do so. Too late for me.

Book Review: The Cuckoo's Egg

One of my favorite things about having a nursing baby is that I suddenly find myself taking 25 minutes of silent reading time about every four hours :)

The first book on my list was "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll. Jon bought this as a text book for his computer ethics course at BYU. Kind of a strange class, but at least he got a good book out of it.

When I first picked it up, I didn't think I would like it, mostly because I am utterly backwards and incompetent when it comes to a lot of techy computer jargon. However, Stoll actually does a great job keeping the "layman" interested and explaining--sort of--how he went about finding the hacker. I still don't know exactly what a Gnu-emacs hole is, but I know that someone can exploit it to gain system manager privileges on a Unix-4 machine. Anyway, it's a great read, but you must remember that it follows a true story... so the disappointments and moments when the hacker escapes are much more numerous than the successes. Still, Stoll laces the often repetitive narrative ("... and by the time I got to the lab, the hacker had logged out... again...") with wit and entertaining verisimilitude... like his description of what happens when you put tennis shoes in the microwave to dry off...

So, if you don't mind a little dinosaur aged computer terminology and a slightly "Ender-esque" finale, this is a great book! High recommendation.

Book Review: Outliers

After finishing "The Shack," Dad traded with me for one of his books. One of my siblings has this one, but Dad can't remember who (probably Aaron, he says). But this particular copy came from Dad's law partner, Mike, who read it and loved it and gave it back. Now dad has read it and loved it and passed it to me... and I read it and... well, here's my review:
When my dad tells a story, he goes all out. Hands, facial expressions, body language, all mixed in with impressive rhetoric. It's a captivating experience. This book felt like my dad telling a story to me. The writing was absolutely captivating. I would call Gladwell a natural-born storyteller, but I know now from reading this book that nobody is a "natural-born" anything.

"Outliers" takes the stories of irregular people, events, and communities and explains them. Bill Gates, for example, wasn't born talking in C++ code. He is NOT a computer genius in the traditional sense of the word. He, like all the other outliers in the book, had an extraordinary mix of luck, circumstance, and 10,000 hours of practice to become what he is. There are many people who could have been Bill Gates if they had the same opportunities. I appreciate that Gladwell sees so much potential in the human race--unfortunately, much of it is wasted because of seemingly trivial things like being born in the wrong month or the wrong zip code.

In addition to the discussion of individual success, Gladwell discusses cultural differences that explain a range of behaviors from solving a math problem to landing (or crashing) airplanes. Suddenly I found myself humbled. When I was at BYU, I took a class called Multicultural Education. The class taught us that as teachers, we must not treat our students according simply to racial stereotypes, and then the professor went on to explain how our Asian students would think differently than our Mexican students, who would respond to authority differently than our black students. It seemed oxymoronic to me. If they wanted us to ignore the stereotypes, why were they telling us what they are? Reading Gladwell's thoughts and research on the topic has really opened my eyes to what my professor was trying to tell me. Multicultural Education means that as a teacher, you must recognize and take the idea of "cultural legacies" seriously. You can read more about what that means in the book :)

I HIGHLY recommend this book if you can get your hands on it. If you like listening to my dad tell stories, or if you've ever wondered why hockey players are all born in January, or if you've ever wanted to be as good as the Asain kids are in math, this is a must-read.

(Aimee, this is WAY better than "The Shack." Although if I know you, you could read both of these in a day and not even break a sweat :) What an inspiration to us all! I'm starting to wish I could read like that... I guess I could if I do it for 10,000 hours!--that's Gladwell's magic number)

Thanks Dad and Mike!

Book Review: The Shack

For Christmas, dad gave us each a different "Bestseller" book to read. Our assignment was to create a "Serial Book club" of sorts--where we read the book and write a note telling why we like it or not, why it should be burned or not, why it should be a bestseller or not, and who else might like to read it. This post may get a little wordy, so I don't expect everyone to read all of it (except my dad). So you can skip to the end to see the bottom line...So here's my review of "The Shack," By, William P. Young:

I was a little unsure and wary as I began reading this book. I keep my faith and testimony pretty well guarded and really have a hard time opening my mind to other points of view. I know the truth; what's the point of reading other's perceptions of truth when I have the real thing? What I found is that despite our differences in religion, William Young was still able to help me understand truths I know a little better.

Young presents God as a very personable character. Mack walks and talks with God face to face. I was a little shocked by the initial visual of God as a big black woman who loves to cook. I like the implication that God is the ultimate servant of man, and the subtle message that God has a warm comforting presence, like the scent of fresh apple pie in the kitchen. That's lovely... but then, just as you're getting used the idea, God changes shape and form. While I know he's all powerful and probably can change his shape and looks on command, I like to think that he doesn't. Young dismisses the traditional look of God--fatherly, bearded, etc.--as just "reinforcing religious stereotypes" (Young 93). But shouldn't religion and churches BE the earthly authority on what God looks like? Instead of changing God, shouldn't man change to accept Him, to try to understand Him?

It's clear throughout the book that Young is not a huge fan of organized religion. After spending some time with God, Mack explains his new understanding of religion this way: "Not a bunch of exhausting work and long list of demands, and not the sitting in endless meetings staring at the back's of people's heads...Just sharing life" (178). That sounds simple. Just be nice to people and you're set? No need for church? I dunno... I'm not so sure about that idea. Yes, there is a sense of giving love and kindness and friendship, but there are also some more specific obligations and ordinances that must be done. Also, gathering together as a congregation and church might be the best way to share life, and it might prove most effective in helping others. One person can't provide disaster relief, but a church group can be rallied effectively to serve. I maintain that organized churches and religious groups are necessary help God's purposes as described by Young. Going to church will help us build relationships with other people and with God. Keeping all those commandments and rules gives us mere mortals a chance to approximate life as a divine being. Obviously, if church doesn't make you feel closer to God, it's pointless. But a church itself is not responsible for that. We're the ones on trial here, not the institution of the Church.

And Adam and Eve didn't mess up the whole plan behind the creation (99).

Ok, so much for the negative. On to things I liked about the book.

Without giving too much away... I'd like to say that the idea that most appealed to me was that "God cannot act...apart from love" (102). Even when tragic things happen, we are not to assume that God has forgotten us or abandon us because we are sinners. He permits us to use our agency, even though it often causes other pain. And yet, he can use our bad choices to help us return and find faith in Him. I liked the focus put on forgiveness--the idea that we ourselves cannot be whole if we don't forgive those who trespass against us. And the ultimate point (I think) of the book: The better way than simply being immune to or suffering pain and evil is to return our independence (that God gave us) back to Him in an attempt to live as He wants us to. Yes, we experience hardship, but if we try to see life through the eyes of the almighty, we can find a higher power, a better plan than what we come up with ourselves.

Or something to that effect. Probably if you read it, you'll get something a little different. THe bottom line is I enjoyed the book. There were some very moving passages that as a parent I think I appreciate more than I would have before. I would NOT recommend it to someone who doesn't understand my belief entirely--I wouldn't want the false ideas that are carnally appealing to eclipse the kernels of truth found in the book. In other words, read the Book of Mormon first, and once you have a testimony of that, you can read this. If you enjoyed "The Five People you Meet in Heaven," or "A Christmas Carol," you'll probably like this one too.

Thanks, dad!
Happy reading!