What I've been reading.

I have been doing a good bit of reading lately.  Over the last few years I have had some responsibilities that kept me from doing much pleasure reading and consequently it is very enjoyable now to have the time to read for enjoyment.  I will comment on the following books so you can get an idea what I have been reading and maybe you will see something that would be interest top you. 

If you click on the books below it will take you to the Amazon.com page that gives more details about them.



Hilary contacted me this last year and ask if I had heard of these books: The Hunger Games and the two sequels which are written to the YA (Young Adult) audience (I must point out here that what the YA books seem to do is have young characters in their teens who are dealing with or at least thinking and reacting beyond their years in some aspects--similar to the Harry Potter books).  She said that they were a big deal at BYU and she had heard what great reads they were.  I was getting the first one for her younger sister and was glad to hear that they were enjoyable.  I had heard from Mallory in our ward that these books were great and her mother had read them as well and agreed they were very enjoyable.  I had seen them around and read some reviews on them.

They are about a dystopian (the opposite of Utopian) society where the central government has a yearly contest to the death where each province provides 2 youths each to be involved in a 'to the death' fight with only one victor surviving.  The reason for the yearly contest (mandatory viewing on T.V. for all the citizens by the way) is to remind them of their subservience to the government.  Needless to say one young woman, Katniss, ends up in the games who has a conscience and begins to see that things in the government aren't as they appeared to her when she was just a simple peasant. Combine that with a mild romance (a la the Twilight Saga in that it is chaste) it appeals to many people.   The writing though is what really makes this great. 

Before I read the book I was concerned about the idea of a game where people had to kill each other with only one victor.  That story line is handled as well as I can imagine and from Katniss' view (the main character) she has some unique views of what is going around her as well as unique (for her society) ways of responding.  Suzanne Collins is able to write about various things that come up in the story in a way that avoids the disturbing traps that other writers fall into that turn away those who want a great story and not a bunch of sex and/or perversion. She does an excellent job of developing the characters such that you can see parts of yourself in them as well as parts of what you wish you were in them.  I've enjoyed the first two books and look forward to the last one in the trilogy. 



Orson Scott Card must be my favorite author.  That being said this book, Space Boy, is not one of his better books in my opinion.  This is more of a novelette.  It seems it might be written to teach a particular thing--something like a fairy tale.  The lesson from it might be that we should do the thing in our life that we were born to do, and that children can save adults even though they are young.  I didn't enjoy it particularly and don't really recommend it.  Instead I suggest you read some of his other books.



Clear as the Moon is the final book in a the 6 book "Great and Terrible" series.  It is a Christian book in that the many of the main characters are believers in Christ and sometimes that becomes a main point.  It is not exactly an end of the world series but might be described as a Satanic attempt to control the world series that is averted by good people including Christians.

Chris Stewart writes books of military fighting and wars for a general audience and has had a lot of success in that realm.  This series is his first to be put out by Shadow Mountain a part of Deseret Book and is a very enjoyably inspiring and realistic view of a possible future. 

This series starts prior to the creation of the world in a place called "the pre-existance" and carries the battle's between Satan and his followers versus Christ and his followers of that time into our present day and a couple years into the future.  It has scenes of military operations but centers more on one particular family and how their efforts to do what is right help to save the United Stated from the evil that threatens to take it over.  It is an excellent end to that series and was worth the wait I had so I could spend the time and effort to read it.  If you read it be prepared to feel excitement, come to tears and a variety of emotions in between. 


The Second Ship is what I call an "Area 51" novel of alien ships found on the earth. That is to say it is a novel about an alien ship that has come to the earth and of course it is in New Mexico (for some reason that is the preferred landing place of aliens small and large).  It seems to be a YA book for the first half as we follow teenagers who accidentally find an alien ship and explore it only to find that the technology is enhancing their natural abilities.  The writing is not that great, nor is anything about it but it was adequate...until in the middle it brought in some adults who take it out of the realm of YA into the realm of creepy horror gross perverted stuff that I didn't want to read so I stopped reading it and deleted it from my Kindle. 


 
Harvest: Memoir of a Mormon Missionary is an interesting and odd book.  It does not fit the expected genre.  I picked it up to read about a missionaries experiences in Russia.  It fulfilled that well but included an unexpected confessional of the missionary who struggled with various personal weaknesses.  In polite company we would just simply call these 'struggles' but in reality this missionary laid bare some disturbing thoughts and behaviors.  The response of the mission president is sometimes curious while the parents respond as one would expect.  After going through his struggles in extreme detail it rushes to the end showing the victory of the young man over his weaknesses.

This is not an inspirational book, at least not in the traditional sense.  I was expecting it to be more traditional in that regard.  It is however a good book that deals with the nitty gritty of a mission and the temptations that a young man may deal with while serving if he isn't careful about obeying the rules.

I don't think this book would be a good one for young men planning on a mission to read.  However it might be good for parents and probably most definitely for Mission Presidents to read to see what some of their missionaries may be dealing with. 

Don't read this if you are looking for inspiration, but do read it if you want to read the nitty gritty of a mission that you might not read any where else.

So that is the good and the bad and the ugly of what I have been reading lately.  Enjoy.  If you have any books that you think I should consider reading let me know.

Borderline Personality Disorder--of interest

Borderline Personality Disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis.  Basically there are three types of psychiatric disorders.  There is a "thought" disorder.  There is a "mood" disorder.  There is the "personality" disorder.

Thought disorders deal with a person's ability to correctly internalize and understand what is happening around them as well as inside them and the relationships between the two.  A thought disorder shows itself in anything from confusion and inability to correctly understand environmental  cues to inability to control thoughts to determine what is reality and what is fantasy.  Thought disorders often have "positive" symptoms which mean that something is added to the person that is not present in most people (some examples are hallucinations or delusions).  Thought disorders often also have "negative" symptoms which means something is taken from the person that is present in most people (for example the ability to show emotions in body language including facial cues and/or the inability to feel emotions).

Mood disorders are a disruption of a persons moods/emotions.  This most often shows itself in depression that is disproportionate to any stimuli or not connected to any stimuli at all and/or lasts for extended periods.  This may also show itself in having extreme heightened excitement (mania) not connected to any environmental stimuli or disproportionate to the stimuli that is present.

Personality Disorders, also sometimes called character disorders, are significantly divergent personalities from the norm.  This refers to the very core of what the person considers to be themselves.   This class of psychiatric disorder is often considered to be the most difficult to treat/change, especially because there is not any medication known to have a positive impact on this type of disorders.

Borderline Personality Disorder indicates a personality that is on the borderline so to speak and crosses over back and forth for what is considered normal.  It often shows itself as difficulty in maintaining relationships although typically the ability to create relationships is not impaired.  It can often be noticed as a person who is unable to determine what makes up themselves (shown as extreme lack of consistency in action, attitude or behavior).  It often also shows in the persons inability to managing their own feelings and/or moods such that they overreact through their behaviors, attitudes or actions.  They often do a variety of actions that are typical and are thought by some to be a concrete symptoms of this disorder: I am speaking of self injurious behavior (i.e. cutting oneself) or frequently threatening and or attempting suicide.  Frequent attempts at manipulation of those around the person and attempts to play one person against another to divert the attention from oneself when things go awry are prevalent as well. 

So having said that as preliminary I ran across this blog that is graphic (swear words, and talk of suicide) that you may want to view as an example of this disorder (almost a text book example) and give you a view of what this feels like for the individual. This is not a person I am in anyway acquainted with myself.  Click here to view.  The comments to this blog are of interest as well. 

No toe wiggles today

We got the report from Lynell after a great visit with her Dad.  He is more alert, watching and following.  Responding with his eyes when something is mentioned out of his sight he looks for it.  She ask him to wiggle his toes but he did not/could not.  She ask him to squeeze her hand three times he squeezed two.  His lips were moving as if trying to say something.  The way they have him set up he can't talk right now so maybe he will try when they get him situated so he could.  She called Mom and let her talk to him on the phone and she said he reacted to that with misty eyes.  Again she asked him to wiggle his toes.  No luck, but instead he raised his leg.  It sounds like Dad is coming back.  We'll be waiting. 

External Hard Drive

Okay, so my wife is my external hard drive.  She remembers all the stuff that I don't and most of what I do, so there is some overlap.  For instance, she remembers what day the trash man comes and the day the recycle man comes.  She remembers peoples names, what people were wearing, how many children our friends have and all the children's names and so forth. 

When I was first called to be Bishop several years ago I wished that we could have a remote hook up so that she could tell me people's names as I came up to them so that I could call them by name.  But it wasn't too long and my capacity was increased and I managed pretty good. 

Well, so, I bring this up because today I'm sitting at the computer and asking her how to spell different words. Yep, my spell checker is on her drive.  Maybe she thinks I'm writing my blog.  She asks if she is getting credited on my blog.  I'm not following her.  Then she quickly recants and says that she doesn't want to be named on my blog.  Why you might ask?  Well she explains that it's the times that I don't ask her how to spell things that bother her and she doesn't want to be named as the spelling director of my blog when I often don't ask her input and spell something wrong!  Hmmph. 

Well, no worries because I use the blog spell checker...sometimes.