Our Search For Happiness by M. Russell Ballard

8/10

In honor of Ballard's general conference talk today, I am making this post. I read this on the mission, way back in the year 2002. In the yeeeeaaaaar 2002 (Conan O'Brien joke).

This is a quick , 124-page book about the Church and written as a kind of introduction to the founding and basic teachings of the Church. I remember liking it. Not as much as the Talmage Missionary Reference Library books of course. But it was probably a more useful book to me as a missionary wanting to introduce the Church to others. But yes, it was good and helpful, but less memorable than the two Talmage and Legrand Richards ones. Do read it, though, if you haven't.

Quote:

"[A]fter the spirit of Christ enters our hearts and our souls, we can never be the same again."

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

8/10

I read this book six or seven years ago. It was written about eight years before the movie came out. The movie is probably my favorite of all time, at least top three. The book isn't in my top three but it is still amazingly hilarious. And it's actually quite different than the movie. It has mostly the same characters, but Forrest's adventures are different. For example, Forrest actually becomes an astronaut and goes to space with a monkey who becomes his pal. They then crash in the ocean somewhere just off an island and become prisoners to these cannibals. There he learns to play chess and becomes super amazing at it (instead of ping pong). There are other examples as well, such as the circumstances of his relationships with his best-good friend Bubba (they meet at college, not the army) and Jenny (they are off and on in both but never marry in the book).

If you love the movie then you will love the book and enjoy Forrest's other adventures. I imagine if I had read the book first though that I would maybe have been upset with how different the movie was. So I'm glad I read it after seeing the movie. And I guess there's a second book called "Gump and Co." which was written after the movie came out. I guess I'll have to put that on my books to read list.

Truth Restored by Gordon B. Hinckley / Gospel Principles

7/10

I read this on the mish many moons ago. It was the last of the 5 Missionary Reference Library books that I read, for obvious reasons. Not that this one is bad or unappealing, but because the other ones are way more awsomer. It was a good book. Truth Restored is a little recap of the the foundation of the church and such. Gospel Principles is several lessons about basic doctrines of the church. My true fans will know that I have already made a separate post about Gospel Principles.

I would recommend this book, but not before other fun Missionary Reference Library books such as Jesus the Christ, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, and Articles of Faith.

For some reason I didn't underline much in this book so I couldn't locate too many quotes, but I will leave you with this one from the Gospel Principles portion of the book:

"When we choose to live according to God's plan for us, our agency is strengthened. Right choices increase our power to make more right choices."

Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card

7/10

I read this probably about 4 years ago, and made hilarious shadow puppets on the wall a few days ago much to Mallory's delight. It is the third of the four books about Bean. And, for some reason, I still haven't read the last book.

This one was enjoyable enough, although no where near as good as Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, obviously. I don't recall a whole lot of specifics from the book other than Achilles from battle school plots a whole bunch of different traps in an attempt to kill Bean (and others). He gets his come-uppins. It's a fun enough read for those who like learning about the goings on of the various battle schoolers.

Quotes:

"To know and refuse to know what you know, that is foolishness."

"Self-delusion dies hard."

"It's better to believe that some high purpose guides our steps than to think that nothing matters except our own small miseries and happinesses."

"It's hard to stand when you have no spine."

Nice Work by David Lodge

3/10

I read this about five or six years ago. It was an assigned book for my Advanced British Literature class in college. The class was taught by an awesome professor (maybe my favorite teacher ever), and this was actually my third class I had with him. He normally assigned great books and was always very insightful. He clearly liked this book and tried his darnedest to point out its qualities. But I just couldn't join him on this one. I was like, "Prof, I love ya, but cut...it...out, c'mon." I found the book not only boring but annoying, a lethal combination. It's one thing to be boring, but don't be annoying. I have tried to forget this book so I don't remember much about it. But it is about one of those classic unlikely affairs where the two characters don't like each other at first and shockingly (sarcasm alert) end up having an affair. They are both so intelligent and sophisticated too. He's some manager dude and she's some feminist professor or something. That's about all I remember and I don't want to go through it again to remind myself about the story. So lets leave it at that. It wasn't the worst book of all time, but if you were to ask me if you should read this then I would say, "No...come with me and let me show all the many different books that exist in the world that should be read before you decide to spend your time on this one." That's what I would say, word for word.

Also, no quotes. I had a couple things underlined in my book but they are not worthy of being singled out and posted.

Joseph Smith the Prophet by Truman G. Madsen

9/10

Classic blogger, changing everything so I don't know how to get the picture to the left side. Sigh. But we must push on.

So this is the book form of a lecture series given by Truman G. at a BYU Education Week. I listened to the tapes a few times on the mish and liked them enough to get the book and read it. It has lots of cool stories that you don't hear too often and is presented in classic Truman G. style. I'm glad I heard the tapes first so that I could imagine his voice saying the words while I read them. He's got a great voice and emphasizes certain things awesomely. I will recommend this book. It is another prophet of the Restoration testimony-builder.

Quotes:

"The response that came to Joseph Smith [in the Sacred Grove] was an answer, I believe, to millions of prayers offered down through the centuries on both sides of the veil."

From Joseph Smith: "Weary [the Lord] until he blesses you."

"Anyone who has enough of the Spirit of God to know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ, by that same spirit will be brought to recognize that one of the prophets called by the Father and the Son was Joseph Smith."

"[I]f a man has a bow and keeps it constantly strung tight, it will soon lose its spring."

"Some of his visions were panoramic. He said of Doctrine and Covenants section 76 on the three degrees of glory, 'I could explain a hundred fold more than I ever have of the glories of the kingdoms manifested to me in the vision, were I permitted, and were the people prepared to receive them.' A hundred times more than the present length would be more than the full length of the Doctrine and Covenants."

"[Joseph said,] 'I made this my rule: When God commands, do it.' That took him all the way to Carthage - and to the glories of the eternities beyond."

From Joseph Smith: "The devil flatters us that we are very righteous, when we are feeding on the faults of others."

Paved with Good Intentions by C.S. Lewis

7/10

So let me explain. This is a short collection of quotes from various letters from C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters." For you dedicated readers, you may recall that I made a post about The Screwtape Letters back in the first year of this book blog's existence. What is great is that I was not able to provide all the quotes that I wanted to because there are just too many. Now I can provide some more that I was not able to then. And I'll still have to leave some out because there will still be a lot for this post.

Anyway, I got this little book (just under 100 pages) in my stocking Christmas morning one year. You're the best, Santa. So I read it over the course of a few trips back and forth on the bus while I commuted to school from Draper to Orem.

Let us get to the quotes already. Reminder: The book was written from the perspective of a senior devil giving advice to a junior devil of how to tempt us and lead us astray. If there is a reference to "the Enemy," it is a reference to God (who is the enemy of the devils, duh).

Quotes:

"It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick."

"If the thing he prays for doesn't happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don't work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and 'therefore it would have happened anyway', and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective."

"The fact that 'devils' are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you."

"One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself....We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons."

"All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden."

"Obviously you are making excellent progress. My only fear is lest in attempting to hurry the patient you awaken him to a sense of his real position. For you and I, who see that position as it really is, must never forget how totally different it ought to appear to him. We know that we have introduced a change of direction in his course which is already carrying him out of his orbit around the Enemy; but he must be made to imagine that all the choices which have effected this change of course are trivial and revocable. He must not be allowed to suspect that he is now, however slowly, heading right away from the sun on a line which will carry him into the cold and dark of utmost space.
For this reason I am almost glad to hear that he is still a churchgoer and a communicant. I know there are dangers in this; but anything is better than that he should realise the break he has made with the first months of his Christian life. As long as he retains externally the habits of a Christian he can still be made to think of himself as one who has adopted a few new friends and amusements but whose spiritual state is much the same as it was six weeks ago. And while he thinks that, we do not have to contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognised, sin, but only with his vague, though uneasy, feeling that he hasn't been doing very well lately."

"All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them."

"Thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools....They cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible."

Amazing stuff.