I'm buttin' in just 'cause I know it's annoying to you all

Here are fourteen fine books that reside in my personal library:

14. Why Nations go to War - John. G. Stoessinger
Stoessinger attempts to explore the question of why nations go to war. He details wars in the twentieth century and explains what led these nations down the road to war.

13. Feynman's Rainbow - Leonard Mlodinow
Mlodinow is a physicist who takes the reader on a personal journey of how he arrived at a blissful place in the life. Indeed the subtitle is A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life. He shares insights about physics and what he feels is important in life.

12. By the Hand of Mormon - Teryl L. Givens
Givens explores historically the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and what impact it has had on the world and in particular upon Latter-day Saint perspective.

11. When Jesus Became God - Richard E. Rubenstein
The author describes the long, violent, and political process of how the view of Jesus evolved within Christianity. He begins in Alexandria a little after 300 A.D. works his way through the council of Nicea in 325 and the subsequent fall-out. He gives some interesting perspectives.

10. Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond
The history of the world is a fascinating thing. History itself is hard to grasp, and its hard to be certain from what we know all that has happened in the history of this world. Diamond describes how the introduction of Guns, Germs, and Steel, essentially, when introduced into new societies often prove the downfall of these cultures, societies and often people.

9. A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell
It's a tome if ever there was one. He begins in ancient Greece and works, chronologically, through the 19th century and into the 20th describing all the impacts on philosophy certain philosophers have had. Its great because it shows just what affect philosophy has had on the developing societies in the world as well.

8. Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling - Richard L. Bushman
Ahhh...very informative. Bushman takes a "daring" and new look at the history of Joseph Smith. He wrote this in regards to the 200 year anniversary of his birth. I say daring because he presents ideas, very convincingly, about Joseph Smith, his world, and what drove his efforts.

7. How Wide the Divide - Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson
Its been called a Landmark book. Blomberg, an Evangelical Christian, and Robinson, an LDS Christian, tackle main themes in each religion and how they relate to each other and also how they differ. The book is written well and is made simple for a quick an interesting read.

6. Lost Christianities - Bart D. Ehrman
This book gave me some information about the coming forth of the New Testament and the history of the era of the years after the books in the NT were written. He speaks of the different groups of Christians who lived in that era, how they disagreed, and ultimately how the "proto-orthodox" group, whom today's Christians generally champion, attempted to shout out the rest of the groups, and how the other groups attempted to defeat what many assume to be the dominate group of the era.

5. Aristotle's Children - Richard E. Rubenstein
Great book. He describes how the era commonly referred to as the dark ages weren't all that dark thanks to the great minds which helped civilization as they were inspired, mainly, by the ideas of Aristotle.

4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Its just a journey of a man and his son across the northwest of the US--from Minnesota to the pacific. He muses on life and philosophy and why is his life is where it is. An unexpected and touching ending caused me to weep a little.

3. Temples of the Ancient World - Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (multiple authors)
Love it. Some of the essays in this book have brought me closer to an understanding of the temple, no doubt. And many of their ideas have fascinated me giving me more reason to love and appreciate the gospel and the restoration.

2. Revelation, Reason, and Faith Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen - Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (multiple authors)
Great ideas are presented in this work. Many of the essays give reasoned explanations as to why the LDS faith is true and divinely inspired.

1. The Worlds of Joseph Smith - A Bicentennial Conference at the Library of Congress
All the papers in this book were presented at the Library of Congress commemorating the life of Joseph Smith. Each gives excellent information about the man and excellent ideas are exchanged in regards to the restoration he claimed and the truths he forwarded.

Love,

David

Gone with the Wind

Another book I absolutely LOVE is Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. It is truly a classic and a must read in my opinion. I need to read it again. The "sequel" Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley doesn't hold a candle to the original. Although I can understand why anyone would want to try and somehow get Rhett and Scarlett together in the end.

Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston

Has anyone read this book? Heather got me reading it. At first I resisted but finally took the plunge and enjoyed it very much. Oprah made it into a TV movie, but didn't do the book justice.

Behind in my reading

The last book I finished, was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I really like it. I started These is My Words by Nancy Turner - and then it was due back at the library. I also started Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, but then it of course was also due back. I am a s l o w reader. I might just go buy these two books. If anyone has read them, let me know if they are good enough to buy. I liked what I had read so far though, so I'm betting they would be worth the purchase price.

Postpartum Depression

Down Came The Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression by Brooke Shields is absolutely one of the best books I've ever read.

I read it after I had Gracie and it was very comforting to me. I also read a similar book by Marie Osmond, but I related to Brooke Sheilds much more. She explains her story and her feelings toward her daughter and it was so comforting to know someone else felt the same way I did.

Brooke Shields also had to deal with infertility before she became pregnant which made her feel even worse once her postpartum depression hit. I want to add a few excerpts from the book that were especially meaningful to me when I was read it:

". . .At first I thought what I was feeling was just exhaustion, but with it came an overriding sense of panic that I had never felt before. Rowan [her daughter] kept crying, and I began to dread the moment when Chris [her husband] would bring her back to me. . .it was as if a vise were tightening around my chest. Instead of the nervous anxiety that often accompanies panic, a feeling of devastation overcame me. I hardly moved. Sitting on my bed, I let out a deep, slow guttural wail. I wasn't simply emotional or weepy, like I had been told I might be. This was something quite different. . .this was a sadness of a shockingly different magnitude. It felt as if it would never go away."

"In general I have always loved babies, and Rowan was not only amazing and alert but also quite beautiful. . .I just felt no desire to picker her up. Every time I have ever been near a baby, any baby, I have always wanted to hold the child. It shocked me that I didn't want to hold my own daughter."

"I watched as Chris finished the diapering, and felt like a beached whale. I was failing at things that, according to popular belief, we supposed to be the most natural in a woman's life. . .but I didn't have any desire to power through and care for this baby. I got hit with a wave of self-defeat and self-loathing and had an urge to smash my head against the wall repeatedly. . .I starting strongly believing that I couldn't be a mother. I was already proving to be incompetent, and we hadn't been home a day! What had I done? Why didn't I want to be near my baby? . .I sat up with my huge legs stretched out in front of me and, slowly rocking back and forth with my face up toward the ceiling, my arms limp at my sides, I sobbed. I couldn't stop. What was I going to do? Was I ever going to stop feeling like this? Misery enveloped me."

This book gives such great detail of how it feels to experience such a horrible depression. If you want me to, I can gather more uplifting excerpts that talk about how she slowly recovered. It's such a great book and opens understanding to something awful that I've dealt with myself. It gets a huge recommendation from me.

Introduction

For some reason I am obsessed at making sure people are introduced. So....

Laura meet melmck (Melanie).

Melanie is my cousin - well she married my cousin- and she lives in AZ but is originally from Utah.

Laura is my best friend and lives in St. George now.

The end. :)

Some All Time Favorites

Two of my favorite books are by Barbara Kingsolver. The Poisonwood Bible is about a crazy preacher who goes to Africa to try and convert the "poor native". He mistreats his family but justifies the means to an end. I love stories that are memoir type books, and to have one about Africa was a bonus. I guess this one really wasn't a memoir but written like one. Her other book I liked was The Bean Trees. A little Native American child left by a mom who couldn't care for her and raised by a woman who found her. The child's name was "Turtle". Isn't that sweet?

The Story of the Andes Survivors: Alive

First of all, I'm so excited to be part of this blog! I've thought of putting together my own blog about books I've read and my thoughts on them, but knew it would be better with more people included.

So, I wanted to start out with this book as a recommendation. I read it several years ago but was very drawn in by the way it was written and the description of these young men trying to survive with such little hope. I couldn't imagine trying to keep a positive attitude of any kind in such a dire situation as theirs.

The book also has actual pictures from the actually wreckage and the survivors when they were found.

Very inspirational and in my top 10.

(As a side note, do not see the movie. It doesn't do it justice and it much more confusing.)

Currently Reading: "Beautiful Boy" by David Sheff.

Short Stories and Some Other Stuff

Lately I have become a lover of the short story. A good short story requires a significant amount of skill as a writer has to convey all that he or she wants to in a shorter amount of space. Two collections to try by two of my favorite authors:

The Opposite of Fate, by Amy Tan

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, by Alice Munro

Also, if you can get your hands on the short story "Sonny's Blues," by James Baldwin, you'll like it.

I also really like memoirs. One that I read recently in just two days (which you have all probably read) that Mom sent me after Sister got here was Chosen by a Horse, by Susan Richards. Another really good one that I tend to recommend to anyone calling me for a book recommendation is The Color of Water, by James McBride, which is a story about a white woman raising 12 children in poverty. Her two husbands were black.

I am reading....

I'm reading the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Its a memoir about a kid growing up in Afganistan. I'm only on chapter 6, but its kept my attention really well and I like it a lot. It got 4.5 stars out of 5 on Amazon.....

They also made it into a movie, but its rated R - which I'm naughty and usually watch those, but I am betting the book is better - since they usually are.

The last book of the Twilight series also comes out in August this year. Its called Breaking Dawn....

WANTED: Book Recommendations!

Let's post some of our favorite books (although I am sure we have read a lot of the same ones).

I can't say enough how much I loved "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky. It's about the fall of France during WWII, but more interesting than the book is the story of the author and how the book came to be published.

I also liked "Night" by Elie Wiesel. Another story about WWII and a young boy surviving the Holocaust. I have always had an interest in stories about WWII.

I also really like to read memoirs. A good one is "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. Another enjoyable memoir is "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less" by Terry Ryan (which is also a cute movie).

Finally, I liked "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. A ghost story that had a twist I never figured out until the end, even with my horrible habit of reading the end of the book before I'm done!

Now it's your turn! I need some good books to enjoy in my new chair!

p.s. don't mind the ugly plywood background behind my reading nook. We got ambitious one day and ripped off all of the ugly fake rocks on our fireplace and then we got unambitious and haven't put anything back up. Maybe I should give the kids some markers and call it "abstract" art!

Wednesday Letters

I just finished this sappy book...Wednesday Letters. Don't bother reading it. I finished it only because I cannot leave anything undone.

My Forbidden Face

I just got done reading My Forbidden Face by Latifa. The author won't give her last name in order to stay safe. Its a memoir about a girl growing up under the Taliban. Its really good. It was a little hard to get into at first, but then I really started to like it. Its not as good as Stolen Lives - which I think we've all read, but it was still interesting. The beginning of the book starts while the girl still has freedom and then it changes once the Taliban gains power. She talks about what its like to go from living a normal life - wearing regular clothes, going to school etc to living a life where females can't even leave their house without a male escort. One part of the book talks about a Taliban law that state if a woman is seen talking to a man that is not her husband, she'll either be killed or they will be instantly married. Its so unthinkable. Reading books like that make me so astonished that there are so many places like that in this world that are still around.

Becky Posted

I just finished reading "The Appeal" by John Grisham. It was good...the ending took me by surprise and it is worth reading just to get to the end. I bought it so if you want to read it, I can mail it down to Clinton and you can pass it around to everyone. I need more good recommendations!I tried to read "Atonement" but it was too sad.

Admin Privileges

I gave everyone Admin privileges so you should be able to add lists and links and pictures if you want. I'm so nice.

Books, books, books!

I wanted to set up this blog as a book-club type of blog. All of you should be able to post about the book you are reading, your favorite book or whatever. Even good quotes. I love to read and know all of you do too!!