Saturday by Ian McEwan

4/10

I read this back in about the year 2007. It was my first Ian McEwan book. I didn't love it. In fact, I didn't much like most of it. Any lengthy book that takes place in one single day just isn't going to do it for me.The first two-thirds of the book is fairly boring and uneventful. The last third of the book picks up and saves it from being a mostly useless book to being an ok book. The writing is good but the story isn't. Fortunately I gave McEwan another chance by reading 'Atonement' which is a far superior book to this one.

The Long Valley by John Steinbeck

6/10

I read this ten years ago. It is a collection of 12 short stories. Steinbeck is one of my favorite writers but this one is by far the least memorable of anything I've read by him. I remember really liking maybe one or two of the stories. The rest were either ok or pretty boring  and uneventful overall. This book contains 'The Red Pony' which is more of a novella. It's a fairly popular story by Steinbeck but I wasn't too keen on it.

But I struggle to enjoy lots of short stories. I'm not sure why. I think the problem is just that - the stories are too short. There just doesn't seem to be enough time for plots and characters to develop.

One quote from a story called 'The Harness':

"[H]ard work is the thing to kill sorrow."

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith

9/10

I believe that this was the first "Teachings" manual that I read cover to cover. It is also one of three "Teachings" manuals that spans two years having 48ish chapters (the others being Joseph Smith and Brigham Young). It's a good one and he was definitely a very inspired individual.

I will share some quotes:

"If you do not forget to pray God will not forget you, and He will not withdraw Himself from you if you do not withdraw yourselves from Him."

"[W]henever ... temptations became most alluring and most tempting to me, the first thought that arose in my soul was this: Remember the love of your mother."

"Death is really a necessity as well as a blessing, and ... we would not and could not be satisfied and supremely happy without it."

"A gift from God, if neglected, or unworthily used, is in time withdrawn; the testimony of the truth will not remain with one who, having received, uses not the sacred gift in the cause of individual and general advancement."

"One of the greatest evils existing ... is that of ignorance, coupled with indifference."

Prayer

6/10

I read this little book way back when. It is a collection of essays on the topic of prayer from church leaders. As you can see from the book cover, there are some pretty big names who contributed to this book. It's pretty good and there is certainly some good insight contained in these pages.

I will share two quotes:

The first is from N. Eldon Tanner: "My father really knew how to talk to the Lord and made him seem so real and near to us. He would pray in the morning, 'Let thy blessings attend us as we go about our duties, that we may do what is right and return tonight to report to thee.' I think of that very often, and what a help it is to me! If everyone kept that thought in mind during the day, in all of his activities, knowing that he was going to account to the Lord at night for what he had done that day, it would be a great deterrent to wrongdoing and a great help in accomplishing works of righteousness."

The second is from Neal A. Maxwell: "Prayers are not to be bulldozers that automatically clear the way of all roadblocks."