What I've been reading #8

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.  ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991

How Do You Tuck In a Superhero? by Rachel Balducci

This is a picture of the author's family

This was an awesome book! I have never raised a son and have often wondered, as a father of daughters, how those little boys running around church and other places would ever amount to anything. This book is written in such an excellent and engaging manner that it sucked me in and really gave me hope for this generation of boys. I've been telling my friends about this book and suggesting that they should read it (women friends) just to understand their husbands better. I even ordered another copy to give to a friend that has several sons, I thought it would be a comfort. She does a good job of sharing some of her families stories to help show her points. She manages to share her wonder of the boys as well and lets us see things fresh as she has learned them herself. This book had me chuckling out loud and reading parts to my wife not to mention the occasional teary eyes. I recommend it if you have any interest in how males grow from those clueless hoodlums to grown and decent men. The author is Catholic and brings in a little religion but doesn't knock it over your head but instead it does make it friendlier to a religious crowd. Read it you'll enjoy it!

Escape from Rwanda by John Bizimana

This book is about a boy from Rwanda.  His father died when he was a child and due to the loss of income they went from fairly well to do to poor.  With all the troubles that arose in Rwanda they soon were trying to get away either to live with family or to refugee camps: to Zaire, Tanzania, and Zambia.  His mother died in a refugee camp and he ended up taken by extended family where he was left in a boarding school when his aunt and uncle went to Belgium because he couldn't obtain the documents needed due to the chaos in that part of the world.  Finally he made it to Belgium.  Every step of the way he proved to be better than expected, doing well in school and everything that he took up.  His dream was to get to the United States.  In Belgium because it seemed he would never get his dream and he started to despair.  Naturally that is when he ran into the missionaries at a basketball tournament.  After joining the church with fervor and then losing focus there and finally becoming reactivated a past prophets grandson provided the money while the Lord provided the miracles for him to make his dream come true as he was accepted and is attending BYU. 

John Yves Bisimana, click to read a little about what he is up to now.

Matched by Ally Condie

This is a YA novel of a dystopian future.  It compares very favorably with Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which I read earlier.  Matched has the same feel except it takes out the violence and improves the characterization and may be better written as a result.  Cassia lives in a society where everything is controlled as much as possible by the government.  To the point that when teenagers are 17 they are matched with another youth who would be their best mate.  So they start a period of getting to know the other person and go on supervised dates with them eventually leading to marriage.  Cassia is not a radical and complies very closely with her societies requirements, until she starts to see some errors and other things that are not working out like they should.  Her family goes through some struggles and a friend is put in danger because of a choice she makes.  Plus she has feelings for someone other than her match.  It has some very clean romance and forebodings of a government gone amuck.  Naturally there is another book coming out in a couple months that will continue the story.  And the romance is just what you would expect from an LDS writer.

Ally Condie

 

Patch-Word Quilt by Paula J. Smith
So there we were up on that mountain on our anniversary and in the cottage we were staying in one of the books in the collection there was written by the owner of the property.  I read a little bit of it and it seemed to be a self-help book.  How to strengthen ourselves in some areas and weaken ourselves in others.  Basically how to become a better person.  So we ended up purchasing a copy thinking it would be nice to have a book written by a person we had met.  It is a small book that takes a number of words like Hope, Fear, and Self-confidence and describes if they are good for people or not and how to strengthen/weaken them in our lives as needed.  I didn't agree with every idea that she had but I did like the quick and easy way of going through a lot of complicated things and making it simple and straightforward.  I enjoyed reading it.  It seemed like a good book for a young person who hadn't heard too much about these things or a person who needed some encouragement to know they could change and be different if they found them self in a place they were unhappy with.  Paula said that she had studied psychology and had found times in her life when she needed to hear the things that she had written in the book.  A fun, quick but thought provoking read. 

Wilde