To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10/10

One of the all-time greats. Just great story-telling and some very likable characters. Atticus Finch is one of my favorite characters ever. What a good guy. Also made into a great movie with Gregory Peck playing a perfect Atticus.

I won't go into the storyline at all but just want to point out how interesting it is that the book can be so light-hearted and childlike yet deal with some serious themes. It's all just so well done.

As I thumbed through my book I was surprised how many good quotes are in this book. I had to make some cuts to my selected quotes which I usually don't have to do for novels. Many of the quotes are just Atticus being Atticus. Wisdom personified.

Quotes:

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

"[S]ometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle"

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

"[B]efore I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

"It's not okay to hate anybody."

"Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him."

"Atticus, he was real nice." "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."

One More Strain of Praise by Neal A. Maxwell

7/10

Maxwell, he is a personal fave. I read this on the mish. The title of the book comes from a line in Hymn No. 156, "Sing We Now at Parting." Not only that, but all seven chapter titles are lines from that same hymn. Pretty cool idea for a book to take lines from a hymn and have each chapter's theme based on the particular line. At least I think so. I don't have much else to report other than it's fun to read Maxwell. His style is so unique and enjoyable.

Few quotes:

"[T]he larger and the more untamed one's ego, the greater the likelihood of his being offended"

"[O]ur shortcomings are too often caused by our short-sightedness"

"Mercy rejoices in every step taken toward righteousness. Mercy is not easily offended and will gladly give place for such first, faltering steps."

"[W]hile a person may not always be able to keep an impure thought from entering his mind, he needn't offer it a chair and invite it to sit down."

"Even the first tiny droplets of decision suggest a direction. Then the little inflecting rivulets come, merging into small brooks, and soon into larger streams; finally one is swept along by a vast river which finally flows into the 'gulf of misery and endless wo'."

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee

7/10

This is a Priesthood/Relief Society manual that was produced pre-mission but which I read post-mission as I was trying to get caught up on all of the Presidents of the Church books. I really enjoy these manuals and love that the Church has been producing them.

The best part about these books is getting to know a little bit about these men who served before I was born. I would know basically nothing about President Lee if not for this book. I still don't know much but it's better than nothing.

Also, as I was looking over this book I noticed that all throughout the book I had underlined words that I didn't know the definition to and I had written the definition of the word in the margins. I don't remember doing that and this is probably the only book I have ever done that with, so I thought it deserved a shout out.

To the few selected quotes:

"The most important of all the commandments of God is that one that you are having the most difficulty keeping today."

"Testimony is as elusive as a moonbeam; it's as fragile as an orchid; you have to recapture it every morning of your life. You have to hold on by study, and by faith, and by prayer."

"[I]f you want to know the last revelation that has come to this people, you get down the last conference report and read carefully especially what the First Presidency said."

"It is not the function of religion to answer all the questions about God's moral government of the universe, but to give one courage, through faith, to go on in the face of questions he never finds the answer to in his present status."

Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

6/10

Here's another one of the few remaining Shakespeare plays that I had read before I took on the Complete Works, but which I had not posted about on the blog. According to my rankings, this is my 22nd favorite out of his 37 plays. Middle of the road Shakespeare in my opinion. Not bad for a comedy play. It invokes Shakespeare's go-to routine of having a girl dress as a boy which I picture as being about as hilarious as it gets back in the day. I liked this play overall though. It had a nice little plot and the characters were interesting.

Quotes:

Fool: "Good madonna, why mourn'st thou?"
Olivia: "Good fool, for my brother's death."
Fool: "I think his soul is in hell, madonna."
Olivia: "I know his soul is in heaven, fool."
Fool: "The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul, being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen."

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

"Love sought is good, but given unsought is better."

"In nature there's no blemish but the mind;
None can be called deformed but the unkind."

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt

9/10

I have wanted to read this book for years. Years. I finally did so and finished it earlier this week. I had high expectations going in and they were met and then some. I really loved reading this book. Especially the first 200 pages. Extremely fascinating. And very well written too, coming from a guy who authored many books, poems and hymns. He knew how to use the pen.

Parley said, "Should the author be called to sacrifice his life for the cause of truth, yet he will have the consolation that it will be said of him as it was said of Abel:...'He, being dead, yet speaketh.'" And that is what is cool about this book. A man who dedicated his life to the gospel and the preaching of it continues to testify of it through this book.

He was an amazing missionary full of faith and the power of the priesthood. He had total and complete confidence in his priesthood power and authority. I wish I would have read this book before or during my mission. It would have helped me see how a missionary should be.

I could talk more about this amazing book and amazing disciple, but I'll leave it there. Also, I could share many a quote from this book, but will only share this long one which is also the most famous story from the book:

     "In one of those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards, Colonel Price at their head, as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery etc., which they had committed among the "Mormons" while at Far West and vicinity. They even boasted of defiling by force wives, daughters and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women and children.
     "I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Jospeh, or any one else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:
     "SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and bear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!"
     "He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.
     "I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended on a breath, in the Courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, or royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms; but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon in an obscure village of Missouri."